Why do so many buy bogus fentanyl exposure overdoses?

The fentanyl fear contagion is spreading far and wide, producing not only absurd symptoms but a dangerous pretext for an even more muscular drug war.

“I don’t know if you just saw that story…” GOP House Leader Kevin McCarthy grimly intoned on Fox News. “…of a young woman picking up a dollar bill sitting on the floor of McDonalds and fell down because fentanyl was on that dollar bill. This is how deadly this is. And w’ere going to hold this administration accountable.”

Acyn @Acyn

McCarthy: I don't know if you saw that story on a young woman who picked up a dollar bill sitting on the floor of McDonald's and fell down because fentanyl

You, dear reader, see what’s going on here, yes?

First, this whole story McCarthy referenced on FOX began as a viral Facebook post from one Renee Parsons, who, importantly, tagged her husband, Justin Thomas Parsons, who, very importantly, lists his occupation on Facebook as a “Parole/Probation Officer at Kentucky Division of Probation and Parole.” The Parsons family, one could surmise, live inside the parallel and impenetrable information bubble occupied by America’s law enforcement officers. They’re convinced that simply touching fentanyl is deadly. If you read and subscribe to Substance you do not need me to explain to you that this is grounded in junk science and has all the characteristics of a mass psychogenic illness.