San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Voting officials now fear fentanyl attacks
SEATTLE — The suspicious letters sent to vote centers and government buildings in six states this month were undeniably scary, some containing traces of fentanyl or white powder, accompanied by not-soveiled threats and dubious political symbols.
Harkening back to the anthrax attacks that killed five people in 2001, the mailings are prompting elections officials already frustrated with ongoing harassment and threats to reach out to local police, fire and health departments for help stocking up on the overdose reversal medication naloxone.
Even if there’s little risk from incidental contact with the synthetic opioid, having the antidote on hand isn’t a bad idea amid an addiction epidemic that is killing more than 100,000 people in the U.S. every year — and it can provide some assurance for stressed ballot workers, election managers say.
“My team is usually in the direct fire just because we’re opening up thousands of millions of ballots, depending on the election,” said Eldon Miller, who leads the ballot-opening staff at King County Elections in Seattle, which stocked up on naloxone after receiving a fentanyl-laced letter in August. “I always say to my team, ‘Your safety is my utmost importance.’ ”
The letters were sent this month to vote centers or government buildings in six states: Georgia, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington and Kansas. Some were intercepted before they arrived, but others were delivered, prompting evacuations and briefly delaying vote counts in local elections. The FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service are investigating.
Fentanyl, an opioid that can be 50 times as powerful as the same amount of heroin, is driving an overdose crisis as it is pressed into pills or mixed into other drugs. Briefly touching it cannot cause an overdose, and researchers have found the risk of fatal overdose from accidental exposure is low, unlike with powdered anthrax that can float in the air and cause deadly infections when inhaled.
Maya Doe-Simkins, co-director of Remedy Alliance/For The People, which launched last year to provide low-cost or free naloxone to community-based, harm-reduction programs, said governments should be more focused on providing the antidote to those who work with people likely to overdose.
There is no shortage of naloxone, which is available online and at some pharmacies, but its distribution leaves something to be desired, Doe-Simkins said.
“It is an absolute gross misuse of resources to spend money on ensuring that election officials have naloxone,” Doe-Simkins said, especially because “the actual appropriate and evidence-based intervention for naloxone distribution is underfunded and under-resourced.”
Chris Anderson, the elections supervisor in Seminole County, Fla., said his office hasn’t received any fentanyl in the mail, but obtained several doses of Narcan this month from the fire department, which said it had plenty of supply.
“We can immediately save a life with those,” Anderson said. “I appreciate the advice given to us from medical professionals, and we certainly will do everything we can not to have to use Narcan, but in that one instance where it’s needed, I’d rather have and not need than need and not have.”