From the article:
Some synthetic opioids are so potent that first responders have been killed just touching them.
.
Reefer madness cubed or something like that.
I guess there is no way of outflanking chemistry with the law as we know it. Colorado was legally declared the Pot State, but not the Bath Salts state.
A real answer will be a spiritual answer, and the law at most will follow behind it as an echo.
Sounds dubious...
Where can we get some?
Carfentanil is a tranquilizer used on large animals, like elephants. Heroin is being mixed with that and the results are quite drastic. Transdermal exposure for first responders is a serious issue.
Sound like first class poisons...
How fast do they operate?
That should have been backed up by some further information rather than just being stated as a fact in the article. In June 2016 the DEA released this warning which stated that two Atlantic City detectives had been exposed and affected by fentanyl. If first responders really had been killed before then the DEA would have referred to it in their release. So if it did happen it has been since June.
(And I don't count a drug sniffing dog getting into an open package and dying from it a first responder death if that is what the author is writing about.)