Halei Watkins, communications manager for King County Elections, holds a package of Narcan at elections headquarters, Friday, Nov. 17, 2023, in Renton, Wash. The office began stocking the overdose-reversal nasal spray after receiving a letter laced with fentanyl in the summer and was evacuated the day after Election Day after receiving a similar envelope. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
OAN’s Abril Elfi
1:50 PM – Saturday, November 18, 2023
Officials are now stocking up on naloxone after fentanyl-laced letters were sent to six different states this month.
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An election official in King County, Seattle, which stockpiled naloxone after receiving a fentanyl-laced letter in August, stated that the safety of his team is the “utmost importance.”
“My team is usually in the direct fire just because we’re opening up thousands or millions of ballots depending on the election,” the official said. “I always say to my team, your safety is my utmost importance.”
The letters were delivered to polling places or government facilities in six states this month: Georgia, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, and Kansas.
Some of the letters were intercepted before they reached their destination, but others were delivered, prompting evacuations and temporarily delaying vote counting in municipal elections.
The FBI and the United States Postal Inspection Service are investigating the incidents.
An antifascist sign, a progress pride flag, and a pentagram appeared in several of the letters.
While the symbols have been connected with leftist ideology at times, the sender’s political views were unknown.
Fentanyl is an opioid that can be 50 times as potent as the same quantity of heroin, fueling an overdose catastrophe when it is pressed into pills or blended into other substances.
However, touching it briefly cannot produce an overdose, and studies have discovered that the risk of fatal overdose from accidental exposure is limited.
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