Topics: US News
People in Tennessee are being warned not to pick up folded dollar bills from the ground.
A grave message was released by the Giles County Sheriff’s Office earlier this month urging parents not to let their children touch folded money.
Folded notes said to contain the deadly drug fentanyl have already been found at local gas stations in the state on two separate occasions.
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Both times a ‘white powdery substance’ was found inside the folded dollar bills which later tested positive for methamphetamine and fentanyl, Fox News reports.
The Giles County Sheriff’s Department warned in a Facebook post: "This is a very dangerous issue!
“Please share and educate your children to not pick up any folded money they may find in or around businesses, playgrounds, etc., without using great caution and even alerting a parent or guardian."
A photo was also published alongside the police department’s message that showed a tiny quantity of powder next to a much larger penny, with officials warning that the small dose is ‘more than enough’ to kill anyone it comes into contact with.
Fentanyl is a strong opioid painkiller only available on prescription, used to treat severe pain, for example during or after an operation or a serious injury, or pain from other diseases. A lethal dose is estimated to be just two milligrams.
The US saw 100,000 drug overdose deaths between April 2020 and April 2021, most of which were driven by fentanyl.
According to Fox, fentanyl overdoses are the leading cause of death for 18 to 45 year old Americans, an issue that’s prompted Colorado Republican Lauren Boebert to push to have the drug classified as a weapon of mass destruction (WMD).
On Monday (13 June), Boebert introduced the ‘Fentanyl is a WMD Act’, saying that the bill would require the ‘assistant secretary for the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to treat fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction’.
She told Fox: “This would enable the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, Drug Enforcement Agency, and Department of Defence to better coordinate their efforts and immediately publish the necessary administrative directive to eliminate the threat posed by this deadly substance.”
Boebert added: “We all know how serious the fentanyl crisis is. Fentanyl is the number one cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45, and it’s not slowing down."
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