A policewoman got high and almost died after she inhaled fentanyl brought up by the wind. She was testing the then-suspected substance for hard drugs. It was found rolled up inside a dollar note after a passenger car was stopped and searched.
A video of Officer Courtney Bannick unconscious on the sidewalk, captured by their bodycam was released by the department to educate the public on the dangers of fentanyl.
Courtney Bannick had pulled the car over and was interrogating a passenger who had fentanyl rolled up inside a dollar note.
It was windy and although she had her gloves on, she was able to inhale some of the hard drug (fentanyl) and immediately overdosed.
She passed out as fellow police officers tried to revive her. One of her teammates, Courtney Sullivan, feared she was dead due to her state of lifelessness. Adding that if other officers were not there, there was a high chance she would have died.
Thankfully, Bannick fully recovered. “I have done this 100 times before the same way”, she said.
The passengers in possession of the banned substance have been arrested and according to police reports, might face possible felony charges.
The fentanyl the police officer inhaled was probably the type illicitly manufactured and distributed by the illegal drug market. It is much more stronger than Pharmaceutical fentanyl; the type prescribed by doctors for certain severe cases such as after-surgery treatment and management of cancer patients in the advanced stage.