I’m so frustrated by the lack of response to the mass psychogenic illness of law enforcement officials claiming to suffer contact fentanyl poisoning. There were a few studies done that quietly concluded that it’s not real, none of the cases were credible, and the symptoms most closely resemble a panic attack or somatic episode.
No one is connecting this to systemic issues in police training and culture and no one is treating this as the canary in the coal mine it is.
Modern police training is functionally cult indoctrination, and intentionally cultivates paranoia. Police learn that everyone is out to get them, danger lurks around every corner, and their only job is to make it home alive after their shift.
They then enter the body of police culture, where questioning the bad behavior of fellow officers is at best strictly socially punished and at worst can get them killed, where they are constantly vigilant to say the right things and portray the right beliefs.
Suddenly, after generations of mainstream culture being generally supportive of police, in the midst of an anxiety-riddled pandemic, there is a highly-publicized backlash against law enforcement. Regular people are saying ACAB, calling cops fascists and murderers and wife-beaters. They’re posting officers’ service records on social media. Police, unwilling to believe they are evil, experience a cognitive dissonance backlash effect and cling to beliefs that contradict reality.
No one should be shocked - and no one should be hesitant to say - that there is a mental health crisis in law enforcement. They are paranoid, hyper-vigilant, and mired in cognitive dissonance. They have guns and virtually unchecked power to enact violence in their communities. Making up delusional stories about fentanyl is a pretty mild outcome compared to what we should be expecting from these circumstances.
Police aren’t just bastards. They’re a danger to themselves and others.
BTW, for anyone thinking this is an old story, the reason I’m bringing it up now is that it is actively being used to justify denying books, mail, and other documents to people in prison. The entire state of Wisconsin just banned donated books.
Prison staff are having psychogenic episodes they blame on fentanyl, and the response from DOC administration has been to appease and legitimize this hysteria by restricting some of the few freedoms left to incarcerated people. Their reaction should be, “Holy shit, the most vulnerable population in our state is in the care of people who in the midst of a mental health crisis so sever it’s causing mass delusions.”