Elections officials across the country are stocking up on the overdose reversal medication naloxone. The reason is that election offices, vote centers, and government buildings are receiving suspicious letters containing threats and traces of fentanyl or white powder.

The mail is bringing back memories of 2001 when anthrax attacks killed five people. Elections officials reported ongoing harassment and threats before the suspicious mailings began. Now they are reaching out to local police, fire, and health departments for help stocking up on naloxone, a drug overdose reversal medicine.

There may be little risk to workers from incidental contact with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, but having naloxone on hand is probably a good idea to assure stressed ballot workers, the officials said. That thinking sounds like opioid addiction is at epidemic levels and it’s not out of the realm of thinking that workers may turn to drugs to cope with stress. It’s quite a statement.

“My team is usually in the direct fire just because we’re opening up thousands or millions of ballots depending on the election,” said Eldon Miller, who leads the ballot-opening staff at King County Elections in Seattle, which stocked up on naloxone after receiving a fentanyl-laced letter in August. “I always say to my team, your safety is my utmost importance.”

Fentanyl can be 50 times as powerful as the same amount of heroin but briefly touching it does not cause an overdose. Researchers found that the risk of fatal overdose from accidental exposure is low compared to powdered anthrax, which can float in the air and cause deadly infections when inhaled.

I don’t want election workers to face harm from fentanyl in threatening letters but I also don’t have a great sense of confidence in workers who may be turning to drug use to combat stress, either. These are the times in which we live. It is often surreal. Frankly, I’ve worked polling places on election day and it is a very long 12-hour day, maybe longer. I guess I should count myself as fortunate that I didn’t need more than a glass of wine to unwind when I went home. Geez.

It’s probably leftists sending the letters but the possibility it is a conservative or conservatives is put into the media reporting. Because, of course.

The letters were sent this month to vote centers or government buildings in six states: Georgia, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, and Kansas. Some were intercepted before they arrived, but others were delivered, prompting evacuations and briefly delaying vote counts in local elections. The FBI and U.S. Postal Inspection Service are investigating.

Some of the letters featured an antifascist symbol, a progress pride flag and a pentagram. While the symbols have sometimes been associated with leftist politics, they also have been used by conservative figures to label and stereotype the left. The sender’s political leanings were unclear.

The media can not bring themselves to point to leftist tendencies toward violence. With all the rioting and demonstrations going on now by the pro-Palestine leftists, I think we’re getting a glimpse into the future – like the DNC convention next summer in Chicago. It may look a lot like 1968.

The suspicious mailings were reported earlier this month as some states held elections. Elections offices in five states reported the letters, which delayed the counting of ballots in some local races. They were sent to presidential battlegrounds like Georgia and Nevada, as well as California, Oregon, and Washington. Four letters contained fentanyl. The FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service confirmed the reports.

Among the offices that appeared to be targeted was Fulton County in Georgia, which includes Atlanta and is the largest voting jurisdiction in one of the nation’s most important presidential swing states. Authorities were working to intercept the letter. In the meantime, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said officials were sending the overdose-reversal drug naloxone to the office as a precaution.

Experts predict that there will be a rise in physical violence as the presidential election in 2024 grows closer.

“No longer are these conspiracy theories and very divisive and vicious ideologies separated at the fringes,” said Jacob Ware, a research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who focuses on domestic terrorism. “They’re now infiltrating American society on a massive scale.”

Biden’s America is coming unglued. Stress is high, the cost of living is elevated, 60% of American families live paycheck to paycheck, mortgage rates are high, credit card debt is at record levels, our southern border is wide open, and the world is on fire. Lunatic anti-Trump people are beginning to say they’ll hold their nose and vote for Trump if he is the nominee against Biden because they can’t vote for Biden again.

Biden is already going wobbly in his support of Israel. We are still sending billions of dollars to Ukraine. Crime is up in many cities. Antisemitism is not being addressed as it should. Biden said he wanted to be a transformational president. Who knew this was what he had in mind?