Despite Debunking, Rainbow Fentanyl Myths Continue
Just as there are adult reasons for vape companies to sell flavored vape pods, there are adult reasons for drug dealers to color their fentanyl.

In 2022, fears erupted over "rainbow fentanyl," brightly colored fentanyl pills that were said to be designed by drug traffickers to lure innocent children into taking opioids. Parents were warned to be on the watch for the pills—especially in their children's Halloween candy stash.
A warning from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) released last August warned that the increasing presence of brightly colored pills "appears to be a new method used by drug cartels to sell highly addictive and potentially deadly fentanyl made to look like candy to children and young people."
"Rainbow fentanyl—fentanyl pills and powder that come in a variety of bright colors, shapes, and sizes—is a deliberate effort by drug traffickers to drive addiction amongst kids and young adults," added DEA Administrator Anne Milgram.
However, it was startlingly easy to debunk panic over rainbow fentanyl. As it turns out, drug dealers have plenty of willing adult customers. So why would these they try to lure children, a customer base with no money of their own? And why would dealers give away valuable stock to do so?
"I'm skeptical that [dealers] would try to target children where there is not an existing market," Sally Satel, an addiction psychiatrist and resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told Reason's Lenore Skenazy in 2022. Considering the high risk of overdose in children, Satel added that "few would survive and come back for more."
Just as there are adult reasons for vape companies to sell flavored vape pods, which were the subject of another panic, there are adult reasons for dealers to color their fentanyl—namely, to "brand [their] stuff."
But this hasn't kept fears over rainbow fentanyl from gaining momentum again as Halloween nears. Last week, police in Tulalip, Washington, warned parents after finding pastel-colored fentanyl pills at a local casino.
"This is a deliberate effort by the drug cartels to lure young users into using this addictive and deadly street drug," Tulalip Police Chief Chris Sutter said in a press release. "With Halloween coming up, children will be receiving and sharing candy, it is important that our Community know if rainbow pills are found, they are deadly, and to call the police."
Earlier this month, more "rainbow fentanyl" pills were also seized near Charlotte, North Carolina.
"Camel used Joe Camel, and it was a cartoon character. The reason they did that was to market to younger people who were more interested or swayed by the presence of a cartoon character," Charles Odell, the CEO of a local rehab center, told Queen City News, saying that rainbow fentanyl is a similar effort to attract kids.
It should be obvious that unscrupulous drug kingpins are trying to attract paying adults, not kids, with brightly colored fentanyl pills. Law enforcement has nonetheless remained eager to peddle this myth—and foment unnecessary panic.
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Cops remain retarded. Not shocking.
Nope. They are not retarded. This is all about funding. It's creating a non-existent problem or inflating the importance of a minor problem so that there is support for an increase in funding. This is playing to the same people who panic about "white vans" in shopping center parking lots or missing children.
It can be both. Some of the cops I've met seem to genuinely believe their own bullshit.
Rational or not, white vans still creep me out.
If I'm being yanked against my will or while unconscious into a van, the color doesn't much matter, but if I had to rank them in order of descending preference:
1. Any other color.
2. White.
3. Black.
4. Red-and-white or Orange-and-white.
5. Purple.
It’s like that ‘King of the Hill’ episode where Bobby gets a snake for his birthday that ends up in the sewer. The local media starts a panic about snakes in the sewers, and the animal control department uses the crisis to demand more funding. Even rousing for ‘Prop S’ to pad their budget.
Seriously, Emma?
You expect us to actually believe that federal government officials would lie to the American public?
Preposterous.
Next she’ll be telling us the media lies.
If Obama & Big Mike had a son, I bet he would eat those Skittles.
https://twitter.com/BigFish3000/status/1708090685629308940?t=3h32GF8hleoDYJTrcmmDKg&s=19
Gangs of illegals from Central and South America targeting suburban homes across America.
Michigan Sheriff blows the whistle.
[Link]
Exactly as planned.
"We're going to make it so bad you're going to beg us for curfews, lockdowns, cameras everywhere, arbitrary arrest and detention, and military-style policing."
AR15 in every home. We keep ours right inside the coat closet by the front door.
Why not under your doormat?
Lumpy
https://twitter.com/laralogan/status/1707992935143231870?t=QBtU16Hx6YTH7voHmaWAEg&s=19
I reported several years ago on Fox News that the globalist plan to dissolve America starts with a regional government of American, Canada & Mexico. This was based on first-hand testimony of someone who spent years infiltrating this globalist cult. They are implementing their plan & global rule already while we are still arguing if it is real or not.
[Link]
Spoiler alert: you totally can make this up.
Retard Alert: It's based on the previous "Declaration On The North American Partnership For Equity And Racial Justice" which resides at https://www.state.gov/declaration-on-the-north-american-partnership-for-equity-and-racial-justice-2/
You can make this up, but you have to have control of a .gov domain to do so. Why do you keep showing up just to make yourself look like an idiot like this?
https://twitter.com/LionsSpectre/status/1707976394104541215?t=b4IlRstPwYmzhCwnZz7C1A&s=19
Utterly insane to think that you can be a murderer, flee your country, come to the United States, and get hooked up with a phone, lodging, and monthly rent payments.
Oh yeah you can also bring your mom, daughter, second cousin, and dead dog too chain migration.
lmfao
It’s no wonder they’re in such a panic over Americans being armed.
But you must be scared. They want you to be scared. Everything is going to kill you if the government doesn’t save you.
BALTIMORE —
A murder suspect's mother spoke for the first time since her son's arrest for the killing of a Baltimore tech CEO.
Jason Billingsley, 32, was arrested Wednesday night after more than 24 hours on the run. He has been charged with first-degree murder and other charges in connection with the killing of Pava LaPere.
Billingsley's mother, Scarlett, spoke to 11 News on the phone Thursday. "I'm very glad he is locked up because I was so scared the police would have shot him first without asking questions because they assume he had a gun, and I know he didn't have it because he tried to sell it where I live at," Billingsley said.
"When he sits there and thinks about that, I think he will apologize, too, because I really don't think he meant to do that. It just was his rage, and whatever caused that rage, we have to find out," she said.
https://www.wbaltv.com/article/baltimore-murder-suspect-mom-jason-billingsley-pava-lapere-tech-ceo/45366661
Wow. The rage made him do it.
Rage made him do this too I guess.
"Man allegedly attacked by Pava LaPere suspect recalls being set on fire as girlfriend raped"
https://nypost.com/2023/09/29/victim-recounts-alleged-arson-rape-attack-by-pava-lapere-suspect/
I mean, with parenting of that caliber, it must have been something else...
I'm going to go ahead and presume that the judge in Baltimore will let him out with no bail.
Whitey made him angry. So it’s whitey’s fault.
"An arrest has been made in Tupac Shakur’s killing. Here’s what we know about the case and the rapper"
https://www.fox5vegas.com/2023/09/29/an-arrest-has-been-made-tupac-shakurs-killing-heres-what-we-know-about-case-rapper/
Didn't take long to solve this one. Only 27 years.
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/brooks-koepka-takes-issue-jon-rahm-disastrous-first-day-us-ryder-cup
Koepka is kind of a choade. Fucking baby.
Fine upstanding yutes.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/booking-photos-released-teens-accused-intentionally-killing-ex-police-chief-hit-run
Evil as fuck.
He will get less time than the Proud Boys at J6. Think about that. Probably less time than some of them who just got 4 years for parading.
Nobody got four years for "parading". I really cannot comprehend this obsession with defending these mostly peaceful rioters.
Then you are too stupid to live, slit your wrists
https://twitter.com/Babygravy9/status/1708036887481360396?t=gNAlQiXIo8CBSeWTaFcUBg&s=19
Watching videos like this you get a vague intimation of what it must have been like to see the Huns arriving on the Catalaunian Plains.
[Link]
With a change in leadership and the addition of machine guns, the problem goes away.
https://twitter.com/Suicideofthewes/status/1707983261484347765?t=rssdptejmPAp-zAEuFg2LA&s=19
Libertarianism exists to deradicalize people. The ruling elite view it as no threat whatsoever.
From the comments:
"Of course. Libertarianism promises people they can do whatever they want with their money and in their bedroom. But in the real world the only ones that can really do whatever they want are the rich and powerful, so Libertarians end up providing cover for oligarchy"
Unfortunately true.
This doesn't mean that libertarianism is wrong, but that we're powerless and have been ineffective.
Trump dead-enders are the stupidest people on the planet, Exhibit #146
If you’re a conservative with a large platform, have you talked to your family about how you’re going to be framed for a crime to killed in 2024 if Biden wins? If you think this is hyperbole, you’ve not been paying attention. 2024 is life or death. It’s time to understand.
How is this any better than Ian Milhouse's I have not yet been arrested by the Trump government theatrics?
Why would Biden wait until his second term to start murdering his opposition? Wouldn't it be more efficient to have started in Jan. 2021?
Cernovich was a big DeSantis guy before DeSantis' campaign utterly destroyed the governor's political future.
Sandra, you sweet summer child.
How can you have watched the weaponization of the legal system and radicalization of the FBI over the last eight years and still be so naïve?
Of course Cernovich is naïve too in thinking that anyone but Biden or his replacement will "win" in 2024.
I'm still waiting for the federal insurrection charges to be levied against the insurrectionists in Oregon and Washington who attacked federal courthouses or occupied an area of downtown and declared it autonomous from the United States of America and prevented emergency services vehicles from entering by threat of deadly harm.
I guess if they didn't trespass on public property to protest for election integrity, they're good to go.
Don't hold your breath waiting for it.
The goal of New Koch libertarians is to cover for the oligarchy. It's not an incidental side effect. They may be reluctant but they are also strategic.
That was a reply to Mother's above. Dunno how it got here.
So why would these they try to lure children, a customer base with no money of their own?
I don't know. Why do trannies, teachers and dem politicians try to lure children to mutilate themselves with no money of their own?
Ideological reasons. Drug dealers operate on profit. Children don't have money. Users will become users without youth marketing to create new users. There's no incentive for dealers to recruit new users in an already self-sustaining market. Conservatives have a need for villains and dragons to slay. Everything has got some evil motive about which for them to get excited and get self-righteous. It gives 'em a high. Not much different than liberals.
At least they don't have some creepy looking camel to market them to kids.
“In the Shitter”: Democratic Rep. Reads Out Entire List of Trump Crimes
Representative Jasmine Crockett used Republicans’ Biden impeachment farce to remind everyone of Donald Trump’s 91 counts.
https://newrepublic.com/post/175856/in-shitter-jasmine-crockett-trump-crimes-biden-impeachment
It's a shitter, for sure, but it's not the way you imagine it.
Tell us some of those "crimes", Pluggo.
Thinking your property is worth more than some bribed judge? Keeping your presidential papers you were legally entitled to? Reporting income on the line the IRS says is correct? Legally contesting election results in the courts using precedents established in the 1870s, 1960, and 2000?
Come on, you piece of shit. Spit out a "crime".
And none of those things involve violations of the criminal code.
I remember when I was a kid in the '80's and all of the illicit drug users in our tony suburban neighborhood would hand out all kinds of free hits, which they paid good money for, to all the trick-or-treaters. Disguised as candy. For free.
Oh, that's never happened? Anywhere ever? Weird.
Never happened in the '60s. If it was happening, the conservative media would be trumpeting specific incidents and charges filed. Show me an example anywhere of a drug dealer targetting a kid. Specifically.
Pluggo doesn't "deal" drugs but I'm sure that he has drugged a kid or two.
Well, I'm not sure there is an adult reason for recreational fentanyl but hey; live and learn right?
Nothing is scarier than a rainbow.
Kudos to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for having the good sense to leave the sick, evil, twisted, batshit fucking crazy democratic party. To say it's not his uncle's democratic party would be a massive understatement.
P S. The Reason staff sockpuppets obviously have the day off today, I hope they're enjoying it!
PPS: I can't wait to see what the authors of "Rhe Declaration of Independents" and their minions have to say about this decision.
"The Declaration of Dependents"?
It's a drop-dead lock that they're both seething with rage. They greatly prefer it when prominent figures declare their independence from the republican party.
I bet Reason ignores both the story and his campaign entirely. Because he's the "wrong kind" of independent.
I'm still kinda hoping for RFK Jr as Trump's VP candidate.
Can you imagine the howling? 😀
The democrats are going to be more vicious and desperate than ever.
What does it say when a pretty far left guy with some loony ideas leaves the dem party? I'm waiting for the day they're too far left for Bernie Sanders.
JFC.
Rep. Bowman pulls fire alarm before government funding vote, causes office evacuation https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4232000-bowman-fire-alarm-before-government-funding-vote/
Rep. Bowman pulls fire alarm before government funding vote, causes office evacuation
Lol
Insurrection fo sure. 20 years.
"“Congressman Bowman did not realize he would trigger a building alarm as he was rushing to make an urgent vote,” a Bowman spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill. “The Congressman regrets any confusion.”
Bowman later said that he thought pulling the alarm would open the door, Axios and other outlets reported."
This kind of excuse wouldn't fly in an elementary school.
Bowman isn't as smart as a kindergarten student, though. He might get away with it because he's a sped.
Bowman used to be a high school principal. Pretty sure he knows all about fire alarms in government buildings.
"Rep. Jamal Bowman pulled a fire alarm in Cannon this morning," an account controlled by the Republicans on the committee wrote on X, the website formerly known as Twitter, including spelling the congressman's first name incorrectly. "An investigation into why it was pulled is underway."
According to NBC, the bigger crime was an auto-correct on Twitter.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/jamaal-bowman-pulled-fire-alarm-rcna118230
Republicans pounce!
Misspelling is violence!
Did the poc not respond to the alarm going off... Like they do with smoke detectors
I got so excited when I read the words "reintroduce grizzly bear populations in Washington".
https://nypost.com/2023/09/29/biden-admin-moves-to-unleash-grizzly-bears-near-rural-community/
But then I found out they didn't mean "D.C." :'(
Yeah, that's been a bit... 'controversial here'. There's a group of high-end fleece-wearing types who drive subarus to hike on the pay-to-park-here trails, and they're worried about the prospect that they'll actually be back in the food chain.
I actually kind of get it, but at the same time, if it makes the mountain bikers more reluctant to avoid the areas I like to hike in, I'm actually good with it.
However, it was startlingly easy to debunk panic over rainbow fentanyl. As it turns out, drug dealers have plenty of willing adult customers. So why would these they try to lure children, a customer base with no money of their own? And why would dealers give away valuable stock to do so?
I have to admit, I haven't been following the whole "rainbow fentanyl" scare that much, but when I read the title of this article, I figured it was going to say, "there IS no Rainbow fentanyl, it's a fantasy in the head of Ron DeSantis, who's literally worse than Trump!"
Imagine my surprise when the article essentially says, "We... well, ok there IS rainbow fentanyl, but it's not as bad as you say."
I'm eagerly awaiting the 2024 article that declares rainbow fentanyl is a critical component for teen gender affirming care, or is the fist amendment of the opioid crisis.
I support the Fist Amendment.
Fist for President!
He is opponents will all be Fisted!
Fentanyl color is the most important thing
Oxy came in colors too, and the color was designed to note the strength. The same was true for mescaline in the 80's that came in rainbow colors and they did it to mark the micrograms per pellet. LSD also had pretty pictures for the same reason to market the strength. Once the people know the color coding crap dealers will fake the colors and steal your money.
Children might not have jobs, but they likely have money and access to their parent's money or goods, like say iPhone or gun.
They color the pills so dealers can't grind them up and mix them with cocaine. It's actually a safety measure.
Why are you so interested in debunking concern over fentanyl? Rainbow colored or otherwise?
Because it's the latest craze in law enforcement and media promoting false narratives to keep people scared.
My whole life, they've done the "always check your kids candy" thing, like there are people out there trying to poison kids. Hospitals offering to x-ray candy for razor blades. All kinds of stupid shit that has, literally, never happened.
Every year some sheriff in bumble-fuck Ohio or wherever will put out press releases telling us all to be on the lookout and thousands of news anchors will all start their teasers with "Could your child be killed by candy? Tune in at 11 to see how to keep yourself safe!" Clickbait online journolists will follow suit.
Hundreds of millions of trick or treat transactions over the last 50 years, the only poisoning was one dude in 1974 who took out an insurance policy on his own kid and poisoned him with a pixie stick. Having government officials say otherwise is evidence they are a waste of taxpayer dollars.
Of late the culprit has been marijuana edibles. Like stoners are going to spend the significant amount extra for pot candy and then give it away for no reason. This has NEVER happened. Since Fentanyl is the latest scary bugaboo, now it's replacing the stoner candy.
This is the closest thing to a Libertarian stance Ms Camp will ever take, calling out authoritarian outrage. Let her have it.
Brightly colored pills are less likely to be mistaken for the real thing, if the fentanyl itself was dyed a bright a color there would be less chance of cross contamination into cocaine or other drugs. It's not a bad idea, actually.
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Camp has a talent for writing articles that function as one giant strawman.
Little Emma is certainly a fine example of ‘progressive’ higher education.
Because killing kids with free fentanyl that looks like candy is such a great idea. Smfh, these anti drug crusaders are completely unhinged from reality.
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