Police believe the powder was Fentanyl - a powerful drug that is often mixed with heroin and can get into the body by simply touching it.
Police attempted to pull over Justin Buckle, 25, who was allegedly conducting a drug deal Friday, WFMJ reported.
And that's what Officer Chris Green did late Friday when he responded to a traffic stop and found the driver and his auto covered in a white powder, he told Morning Journal of Lisbon, Ohio.
After Buckle and passenger Cortez Collins, 24, were arrested, patrolman Green followed station protocol for handling drugs by putting on gloves and a mask when he searched the auto.
As the officer talked at the station while waiting for the ambulance to arrive, someone pointed out to Green he had something on his shirt and he quickly wiped it off with his bare hand.
A police officer in OH got a lesson the hard way on just how potent the opioid fentanyl can be.
Emergency workers gave Green a dose of Narcan at the station and three more doses at the hospital.
According to Wright, Green is doing fine after the incident. Buckel will also likely be charged with felonious assault in connection with Green's exposure to the drug. "The last thing I think I remember is falling backwards into the door", Green recounted.
The vehicle of suspected drug dealers Justin Buckle and Cortez Collins. In the midst of arresting two people, a little bit of Fentanyl or Carfentanil got on his uniform.
Last year, the Drug Enforcement Administration released a video a warning law enforcement that even incidental contact with the drug could result in a fatal overdose. "I could hear them talking, but I couldn't respond", Green told Morning Journal.
Green is expected to fully recover. "By then, my thumb, my finger is already in it", Green said.
It wasn't that long ago when police would do a chemical test right there at the scene as soon as a substance was confiscated so they would know what type of drug they were dealing with. These people have no regard for anybody, not themselves, not the police, not their kids, " Lane said.
The powder was identified as fentanyl, an opioid 50 times more powerful than heroin.
But fentanyl isn't the only illicit street drug with the same deadly attributes. "You just throw that in the air, people inhale it, and they're going to die", he said. He wants to continue to catch drug suspects like he did Friday. But Green's accidental overdose is another example of Ohio's opiate epidemic and its dangers for police, as well as the public at large.
Buckle is a resident of East Liverpool, and Collins lives in Cleveland.
