I’m not surprised that a quantity of fentanyl and filler that was sold as a single injectable dose of heroin, could be handled without serious consequence. To match the overall potency of heroin, that would have had to be about 1 part fentanyl to 50 parts inert filler. Heck, if a breeze had picked up and they’d accidentally inhaled a little of it they wouldn’t have suffered much more than mild sedation. They weren’t handling more than a single dose’s worth to begin with.
The accidental overdose danger, I’d expect, would happen with (1) handling pure or nearly pure fentanyl, and (2) accidental ingestion or inhalation.
As might happen if, say, someone too ignorant of chemistry to tell sucrose from fentanyl ended up messing around with 12 pounds of pure fentanyl, and somebody sneezed…
