Experts Question Viral Video Of San Diego Officer Overdosing After Touching Fentanyl

Experts are disputing the validity of a now-viral video showing a San Diego County Sheriff’s Deputy overdosing after coming into contact with fentanyl.  

 The sheriff’s department released the officers’ body camera footage on Thursday showing the incident. “My trainee was exposed to fentanyl and nearly died,” Corporal Scott Crane says at the beginning of the video.

The video shows deputy David Faiive at the scene of a drug bust. The officer stumbles backward and collapses. Cpl. Crane goes over to the officer, who is reportedly overdosing. He is seen administering Narcan, a nasal spray containing naloxone. Naloxone is administered to counteract the effects of an overdose. The officer was taken to a local hospital, where he recovered.

Nobody is disputing how deadly the synthetic opioid is. Still, experts believe it is improbable, if not impossible, to overdose from just being near fentanyl. A medical director for toxicology and addiction at University Hospitals in Cleveland told NBC News that you can’t just touch the deadly drug and overdose.

“We have a lot of scientific evidence and a good knowledge of chemical laws and the way that these drugs work that says this is impossible,” Ryan Marino told the outlet.

A paper published in the International Journal of Drug Policy by multiple academics in June concluded that there are no confirmed touch-base cases of first responder fentanyl overdoses. Researchers suggest it would take a significant amount of airborne fentanyl and prolonged exposure to cause an overdose. 

Instead, experts suggest “growing hysteria” surrounding the drug, and more likely, panic attacks. And spreading misinformation can dissuade other first responders from rendering the necessary aid. It also inaccurately depicts the signs and symptoms attributed to an overdose. 

The sheriff’s department maintains that the contents of the body cam footage accurately depict what happened to Deputy Faiive. NBC News reached out to Faiive for comment but was told he was out of the country by a spokeswoman for the department.