Authorities warn public to avoid touching or licking fentanyl-covered dollar bills they find on the ground.
Used to be, if you spotted a dollar bill on the sidewalk, the worst that could happen is a mischievous stranger would yank it away with a fishing pole. Those were simpler times. Today, authorities in Tennessee warn, that mischievous stranger may have trafficked fentanyl on the surface of the dollar bill and your attempt to obtain the dollar for yourself might just be your last.
"Today, users and law enforcement across the whole country are dealing with the fact that -- we're dealing with an unknown, largely unknown, and very lethal product, synthetic fentanyl,” said Terry Topping, a narcotics investigator with the Chattanooga Police Department.
"Finding a dollar bill on the floor, on the ground and picking it up and opening it up, may contain the product, fentanyl. It can expose you, particularly the person that doesn't have the tolerance or is a common user of an opiate,” Topping added.
"If that dollar bill had at one time fentanyl wrapped up in that dollar bill or still contained the powder, it's very likely or possible that they'd be affected by that product,” Topping said.
"You've got it in the air, you've got it on your body, you've got it on your hands. You're looking at two milligrams being a lethal dose, which is enough to fit on the tip of a pencil,” said Topping.
"If you have it on your hands somewhere, somewhere on your body and you're eating McDonald's fries, and you pull that fry out after having that exposure and you go to one of yours hands, now you've just ingested it into your body,” Topping said.
It’s an epidemic in the state. In December of 2021, a police officer and a baby were exposed to fentanyl from a dollar bill in the baby’s mom’s car. Miracolously, the baby didn’t overdose but the officer had a close call when he logged the dollar into evidence and some of it spilt onto his bare skin.
“Well, I knew then. I said, ‘I’m in trouble.’ I was there by myself. I had no Narcan. So I got a hold of dispatch and told them to get an ambulance en-route to my location. Within just a couple of minutes, I started with the sweats, the nausea, the dizzy,” Officer Mills said.
The previous month, authorities at a high school in Tennessee fell ill with fentanyl after being exposed to the deadly substance through a student’s vape pen. Miracolously, the student was not harmed despite inhaling the fentanyl, yet staff members had to be administered Narcan—despite the fact that no fentanyl was found in the vape pen, according to the Monroe County Sherriff’s office!
A vape pen laced with fentanyl was brought into Sequoyah High School in Madisonville, Tennessee, earlier today by a student. Two Monroe County Sheriff’s Office SRO’s and a nurse were exposed, with symptoms. All three were administered Narcan and are reported to be in stable condition. The 17 year-old student who brought the vape pen into the school was taken into custody. The incident is being investigated.
Ever vigilant, the local news media was on it, with these 35 reporters live at the scene : By Kelly Ann Krueger, Savannah Smith, Camruinn Morgan-Rumsey, William Puckett and Gray News staff
Officials originally said the fentanyl came from a 17-year-old student’s vape pen, but Vineyard later said that none of the drug had been found in the pen’s cartridge. This could mean that the fentanyl was not liquid-based, he said. He was not able to disclose details of how the overdoses occurred.
However, he said the student who brought the vape pen was taken into custody and charged. The specific charges were not disclosed, as the student is a minor.
Most recently, this week, a Kentucky mother picked up a dollar bill in McDonald’s in Nashville “and had a bad reaction.” Her husband said he even started to feel symptoms after his wife touched his arm. "It is like your body is just shutting down," she said. I guess go to Waffle House instead of McDonald’s when you’re down South? Even Shony’s might be a safer bet.
"She hadn't said anything for a while, then she said, 'Justin, I am sorry. I love you.' Then she just quit talking," Justin Parsons said. At the end of the story we hear from a drug specialist at Vanderbilt who has “reservations” about the couple’s account. "I think it is really unlikely the substance this lady got into her system is fentanyl based on the symptoms she had," Dr. Donald said.
"It is much more likely for her to have a reaction if she had inadvertently rubbed her nose and exposed that drug to some of the blood vessels in her nose or licked her fingers or rubbed her eyes," Donald said.
Public service announcement: don’t lick your fingers after picking up money from the ground at a McDonald’s in Tennessee! I understand it may be tempting to taste the floor money. But desist unless you have a fentanyl testing kit and Narcan on hand.
The epidemic of fentanyl exposure usually impacts police officers who, thanks to the defund movement, are more likely to pick up floor money and lick it.