John R. Fischer

Hi everyone, short post here but very important.

Over the weekend, while riding the F train into Manhattan, I looked down to see what appeared to be a crushed up Mike and Ike candy split in half and wedged into the crevice of the door connecting the car I was in to the next. I thought it looked weird for some reason but told myself that it was nothing out of the ordinary, as there’s all sorts of food and other debris scattered across the filthy floors of the subway. I was wrong.

A minute later, I looked back to see the man sitting across from me had gotten up, opened the car door and was kicking the Mike & Ike out on to the tracks below. When he closed the door, he sat back down, looked at me and said he did that for the children. Turns out, that Mike & Ike was actually a “rainbow fentanyl” pill. Basically, Drug cartels and traffickers help develop and distribute the pill- and powder-based drug in a variety of bright colors, shapes and sizes that resemble common sweets to lure in and get children and adults hooked on the substance.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine.  Just two milligrams equals 10-15 grains of table salt and is considered a lethal dose.  Without laboratory testing, there is no way to know how much fentanyl is concentrated in a pill or powder. According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration, nearly 70 percent of the more than 107,000 drug overdose deaths in 2023 were linked to opioids such as fentanyl. 

In August 2022, the DEA put out a warning about the rainbow fentanyl trend after seizing brightly-colored fentanyl and fentanyl pills in 26 states. 

The man on the train explained to me that children easily pick up various things, including off the train floor (which scares me for so many other reasons), and that this is the worst thing they can pick up. So, parents, please be extra vigilant with your kids when on the subway, as you never know what they might find and randomly pop in their mouths, or how deadly it may be. It only takes one time for someone to become hooked on, or worse, die from taking one of these fentanyl drugs. If it can happen to an adult, just imagine how much more fragile a tiny human child is when they come into contact with this substance, dressed up in a way to deceive and manipulate them to do something that could cost them their very short life.