Rainbow fentanyl increasingly found on Central Coast, no fear its in candy officials say
As fentanyl continues to be prevalent on the Central Coast, police in Monterey said they continue to see a rise in rainbow-colored fentanyl.
Rainbow fentanyl was first reported here on the Central Coast in July. On Wednesday, officials said they've seen an increase since July.
“Unfortunately, fentanyl has been on the Monterey Peninsula for several years now," said Ethan Andrews, a lieutenant with the Monterey Police Department. "However, we do believe we are unfortunately seeing an increase in this colored fentanyl or rainbow fentanyl as it’s sometimes referred to."
History repeats itself
But experts say drug dealers selling colorful drugs is not new.
"The illicit drug market has been pressing and making drug products that look like candy and are colorful for many years," said Dr. Casey Grover with the Monterey County Prescribe Safe Initiative. "It's just new that this phenomenon of fentanyl and this phenomenon of colorful candy-looking drug products have been combined."
Grover used ecstasy as an example, saying it is often pressed into colorful tablets with various logos. While that trend is now being seen in fentanyl, experts are not aware of it being used to specifically target children in Monterey County.
"There's an overall trend with fentanyl that it is being increasingly prepared in these rainbow forms but in Monterey County, I'm not specifically aware of anyone say on student campuses specifically trying to sell it," Grover said.
The first case of rainbow-colored fentanyl on the Central Coast was reported by Monterey police in July 2022. Police say they weren't the first to discover it but were one of the first to share it publicly.
"I would not consider Monterey to be a location where you see a lot of narcotics trafficked through the area," Andrews said. "It tends to be, in my experience, an end-user location where narcotics come here for consumption."
Grover believes fentanyl has become mainstream because of its price and accessibility. Because of that, fentanyl is being laced into other drugs.
“Because it’s cheap and easy to get, it’s therefore being cut into other drugs to maximize profit,” Grover said.
Profit is what is pushing a lot of the growth, and Grover says that the supply increases with demand.
"The illicit drug market is all about profit and whatever drives profit they are willing to try. As such, when people are more likely to buy this rainbow fentanyl, we'll see more of it,” Grover said.
Recent reports have raised concerns about drug dealers targeting children, especially with the upcoming Halloween holiday. Grover disagreed with those reports by the DEA and national media outlets, saying he is not aware of school-age children being specifically targeted.
"There is not a lot of incentive for somebody to want to put fentanyl in a Halloween treat cause in a child, it's going to be pretty much uniformly fatal," Grover said.
No matter the color of the pill, fentanyl continues to circulate. And Grover has seen firsthand the impacts of the deadly drug.
"Unfortunately, I've seen people who overdose and end up in the emergency department the very first time they've tried anything, they were just experimenting,” Grover said.
He offered this warning to anyone who may be considering buying a pill on the street.
"Please realize that it's not what you think it is when you buy it on the streets, even if it looks pleasurable, fun, candy-like, looks benign," Grover said. "Fentanyl, unfortunately, is really in almost all of our street drugs."
Close to home
For Michelle Hamilton, the opioid crisis is personal. She lost her 19-year-old son Tyler in May to a fentanyl overdose. She says more people in the community need to be aware of the dangers.
"I sat next to his bedside for 16 days until he passed away," Hamilton said. "Had I known better, had I educated myself more, I don't know what I could've done. I just hope another parent never feels the way I do."
Hamilton says the negative stigma around drugs and fentanyl is a reason why a lot of parents don’t talk about the issue.
"Please take it seriously that it's here. It's in our own backyard,” Hamilton said.