Haven't read the article (can't be bothered to work around the paywall), but the fentanyl scare is driven in large part by "copaganda". Cops treat fentanyl like some sort of boogeyman (to the point that they have panic attacks when they think they might have had fentanyl somewhere in their presence, get "revived" with narcan, and further perpetuate the myth that fentanyl is some mythical thing that can kill you just by looking at).

This isn't to say that fentanyl (and opiates in general) isn't a huge problem in the US (I couldn't possibly count the number of legit narcan wakeups I've done over the years), but fentanyl in particular is really prone to exaggerated claims by law enforcement that don't pass the sniff (or snort?) test.