My Daughter’s School District Warns That Nicotine Vapers Could Be Unknowingly Inhaling Fentanyl

This week I received a “Drug Awareness and Prevention Alert” from my daughter’s school district. As is typical of these communications, the message from the Plano, Texas, Independent School District (ISD) mixes sensible advice with alarmist rhetoric and misinformation. That is a risky combination, because skeptical students and parents who recognize the anti-drug nonsense may be inclined to dismiss all of the warnings, including those that have a basis in fact.

The alert mentions “fake pills laced with fentanyl,” which is a real thing, then adds that fentanyl “can be disguised as candy in order to lure younger kids,” which is not a real thing. But this claim was especially striking: “The recent trend of accidental overdoses involving fentanyl is a stark reminder of the hazards posed by this very dangerous opioid. Please be aware that this is not just in the form of pills in our community, but also in the form of injectables into vape cartridges.”

The context makes it clear that Plano ISD is talking about nicotine vape cartridges, because its warning is immediately followed by this: “While Plano ISD has always had policies prohibiting tobacco use on campus, we know that the rise of vaping among teens continues to be an issue.” The Round Rock, Texas, ISD issued a similar warning. “A disturbing trend is altering vaping devices by injecting fentanyl, methamphetamine, and other illegal substances into the vaping liquid,” it says. “The fragrant vape juices make these dangerous and highly-addictive drugs difficult to detect and can expose unknowing students to harmful and potentially deadly substances.”

If fentanyl has been detected in vape cartridges that people thought contained only nicotine and flavoring, that would indeed be a serious hazard. But neither school district presented any evidence to substantiate that claim, which seems to be based on reports about two distinct concerns: 1) people who deliberately vape fentanyl and 2) people who vape black-market cannabis extracts that allegedly contain fentanyl. The first concern does not involve “unknowing” consumption, while the latter is based on reports that frequently prove to be unreliable. Neither involves nicotine vapers who inadvertently inhale fentanyl.

The incident described in a September 2020 bulletin from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) falls into the first category. It involved a 2019 “suspected fentanyl overdose death” in San Diego County, California. The DEA says its agents “searched the residence and seized approximately five pounds of narcotic substances,” including “fentanyl powder and multiple fentanyl related substances.” They also found “vape pens, syringes, a pill press (which tested presumptively positive for fentanyl), and methamphetamine.”

This case did not involve nicotine vapes or inadvertent fentanyl consumption. “The roommate of the deceased, who admitted to vaping fentanyl on a regular basis, told agents there was fentanyl and possibly carfentanil located in their shared residence, as well as fentanyl-laced ‘vape’ tanks,” the DEA says. The San Diego County Medical Examiner said “this was [the] first case in which they had found fentanyl in vape pens.”

Last year, the Rocky Mountain Poison Center warned that Colorado teenagers “have been experimenting with vaping fentanyl.” That “cluster of adolescents overdosing on opioids” clearly did not involve “unknowing” consumption either.

On its face, a February 2022 incident in Pennsylvania more closely resembles the scenario imagined by Texas school officials. Mifflin County School District Superintendent Vance Varner reported that staff had confiscated “three vape pens” at Mifflin County High School. He said “school resource officers” found “the vaping devices were altered with fentanyl or heroin being injected through the vaping liquid.”

It’s not clear how the officers knew there was fentanyl in the vape pens. The CBS affiliate in Harrisburg said the pens “tested positive for fentanyl or heroin” (emphasis added). That suggests the identification was based on field tests, which