Woman Collapses After Touching Dollar Bill She Believes Was 'Laced' With Fentanyl, Many Experts Doubt Her Claim

The great fentanyl panic has spread from cops to humble McDonald's patrons, as a woman recently went viral for claiming that she collapsed after picking up a dollar she believes was "laced with fentanyl" at the Golden Arches.

A pit stop in Bellevue takes a terrifying turn for a Kentucky family. A mother of six says she picked up a dollar bill off the ground at a fast food restaurant and soon passed out. I’ll have her story on @WKRN at 5 pic.twitter.com/dvdzucGhry

— Stephanie Langston (@stephnthecity) July 11, 2022

The tale of Kentucky's Renee Parsons goes like this. She was in a McDonald's and picked up a dollar she found on the ground. Then she remembered a story about criminals supposedly leaving fentanyl-laced dollars on the ground in some sort of dastardly plot.

Fentanyl is a powerful opiate that has been the cause of moral panic as of late, thanks in part to several stories where police officers have claimed to suffer its effects after handling the drug. While her husband lectured her to be more careful and listed the symptoms of a fentanyl overdose, she coincidentally felt the symptoms of a fentanyl overdose, writing:

Then I grabbed a wipe to wipe off my hands bc I remembered him telling me not to pick up money off the ground as people have been putting it in fentanyl. As he began to somewhat lecture me It hit me like a ton of bricks. All of a sudden I felt it start in my shoulders and the feeling was quickly going down my body and it would not stop.

Whenever a "fentanyl overdose from physical contact" story goes viral, medical professionals have repeatedly attempted to clarify that one cannot overdose from the drug by merely touching it. It must be ingested for one to feel severe effects.

Snopes spoke to toxicologist Dr. Todd Korthuis, who stated, "The risk of significant fentanyl exposure through skin contact is extremely low." Snopes also spoke to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, who stated officers on the scene "didn’t see any residue on it that would indicate the presence of a drug," that there was "no evidence a crime had been committed" and that it was their opinion Parsons' medical episode was not a fentanyl overdose.

While it is unconfirmed what exactly caused Parsons to collapse, many suspected it was a psychosomatic result of her panic from believing she'd come in contact with fentanyl, a similar theory applied to cops who pass out from supposed "exposure" to fentanyl.

I am in awe of the degree to which this woman did not suffer a fentanyl overdose https://t.co/o0WPLkhxUb

— Natalie Shure (@nataliesurely) July 12, 2022

Things fentanyl can do:
-Relieve pain
-Cause constipation and/or nausea
-Slow or stop breathing
-Cause dependence/addiction

Things fentanyl cannot do:
-Cause you to fall down screaming & hyperventilating
-Make your entire body go numb
-Get into your body through casual contact

— The Annasthesiologist 🤟 (@fuzzymittens) July 12, 2022

I actually got a fentanyl overdose just from touching the picture of the dollar bill on my phone screen to scroll the comments. It’s that dangerous!

Now, tragically, I’m dead.

— Rob Patton (@RobPattonMSNRN) July 12, 2022

Additionally, some doubters of the woman's story posted memes about the debacle, as we've previously seen with similar stories of people supposedly encountering the drug.

gonna put fentanyl-laced 1 dollar bills in a ring around my house to create a warding circle for cops pic.twitter.com/RlrjxzSCRF

— gryphoneer (@OneRadChee) July 12, 2022

This is the doctor that saved my wife's life with narcan after she was unknowingly exposed to trace amounts of fentanyl on a book of matches last night. I couldn't be in the room cause I would also be exposed but after about 30 minutes she stopped pleading with God and was fine. pic.twitter.com/fqjk8aM5uI

— Spurt Magoo (@spurtmagoo) July 12, 2022

"did I touch fentanyl or is it my havana syndrome acting up again?"

— Average Wilkins Coffee Enjoyer (@OzKFodrotski) July 13, 2022