Police officers in Hayward, CA and Alameda County are seeing a new type of fentanyl not seen before. This fentanyl is soft and gummy, with bright colors. Officers, at first, did not know what they had when they recovered it on the street. Bright colored fentanyl had not been recovered before. 

“We discovered it with some of our officers on patrol,’ said Cassondra Fovel, a Hayward Police Dept. spokeswoman, “It almost has a gummy-like texture. It’s sort of squishy. And the color was very bright. In this instance, we encountered the purple fentanyl.”

According to officers from the area, users are smoking or injecting this new form of the drug. Sgt. Kelly, from the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, said that deputies recovered bags of purple and pink colored fentanyl powder. 

I spoke to officers in the area and they are seeing bright colored fentanyl in pink, purple and yellow. Apparently, each color is more potent that the other (according to users). 

Analysis of Trend

There are many regional trends popping up with fentanyl. We noted earlier about synthetic cannabis being infused with fentanyl on the East Coast. This may be just another such trend limited to the Bay Area. I used to work in this area. There was a time when Hispanic gangs would color their methamphetamine the same color as their gang color (Surenos made their meth blue and Nortenos made their meth red). This trend died quickly, but it was a great marketing tool for them. This may be another such marketing tool. 

However, you cannot ignore what I bring up in every one of my classes. The days of looking at a drug and knowing what it is immediately are gone. You can’t handle drugs like it was 1990. Ensure you are wearing proper PPE which includes eye protection, a respirator and nitrile gloves. Click on the links to find cheap variations of what I recommend. If you want to keep up on the most current drug trends, you can take my online training at Law Enforcement Learning.