A Tavares police officer is doing the LEO version of posting through it after a video of her falling out after being near a substance believed to be fentanyl went viral.
Though the clip was shared without question by several Central Florida news outlets, it was clear from the beginning that we were not witnessing an overdose. Police have proven uniquely susceptible to the lies and narratives they spread to justify their own funding. In the case of powerful opioid fentanyl, this has led to a whole new genre of video where cops overreact to the believed presence of a drug.
Tavares PD Officer Courtney Bannick was merely the latest Central Florida cop to freak out after being near an unknown powder. She fell to the ground and was given the anti-opioid overdose drug Narcan by her fellow officers. In our pages, we’ve questioned the idea that Bannick overdosed from a gust of wind that blew trace amounts of fentanyl up her nose. (The department’s official position as of last week.) WESH brought in an expert who throughly debunked the idea.
“I feel very badly that this officer had such severe symptoms and such a strong reaction. I watched the body cam footage and it is pretty dramatic. My concern is that the footage does not show anything consistent with an opioid overdose,” said Dr. Ryan Marino, a medical toxicologist. “And the symptoms that are reported, and that we’re seeing, are actually the opposite of what you would see in a fentanyl overdose.”
Still, Bannick is sticking to her state-issued guns. She told The Daily Mail that “street scientists” are creating more potent forms of fentanyl that could lead to an overdose from a mere glance in its direction.
“This is manmade fentanyl from street scientists. Things are always changing these days and dealers need to be one step above,” she said. “This is not pharmaceutical grade fentanyl.”
The news story comes at the same time that networks like CBS are pushing “fent as bioweapon” narratives in their primetime cop shows. The endless loop of positive feedback around the idea that fentanyl is some mythical ultra-drug that can pass into your system in ways never before seen from powder drugs can only lead to hesitation at the moment that someone is actually in need of assistance from a fentanyl overdose.