Drug roundup: Law enforcement warns about 'rainbow fentanyl'; young adults using pot and hallucinogens at record rates; needle exchange project in rural Nevada

Rainbow fentanyl (U.S. Customs and
Border Patrol Protection photo)

Law enforcement officials across the U.S. are reporting a spike in seizures of "rainbow fentanyl," a brightly-colored version of the synthetic opioid that often looks like candy. Some officials believe the drug is being marketed to children, but others dispute that. Still, officials agree that fentanyl is dangerous no matter what it looks like. Read more here and here.

The amount of young adults (ages 19 to 30) who report using marijuana and/or hallucinogens is at its highest rate since 1988, when the National Institutes of Health began tracking it. Marijuana vape usage reached pre-pandemic levels last month after dropping off in 2020. Meanwhile, hallucinogen usage rates began spiking in 2020. Bing drinking rates are also on the rise since the beginning of the pandemic. Read more here.

A needle exchange project modeled on urban efforts aims to save lives in rural Nevada. The program "comes as leaders in small, often conservative cities have been asked to adopt policies forged in large, more liberal cities, such as New York and San Francisco," Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez reports for Kaiser Health News. "Federal reports show people who use needle exchange programs are five times as likely to start drug treatment programs and three times as likely to stop using drugs as people who do not, but programs in Nevada and other states have faced similar pushback."