Yeah, some of the drugs they find mixed with fent make no sense at all. This is definitely the case at least some of the time.

Unfortunately, there are psychopaths in the drug-dealing world, too. I remember this guy who was a fairly respected ketamine darknet vendor until someone found a forum post where he talked about occasionally spiking his product to kill "druggy scumbags." The guy claimed it was a joke and for all I know it was, but Jesus, it scared the hell out of me. It's like that doctor in the UK - there are people out there who just enjoy causing suffering, even when it is at direct odds with their personal interests.

And then on top of that, fent analogs became really popular in the gray market scene for a few years due to the bans on just about every other opioid. New fentalogs were popping up all the time after each successive ban wave, and the only other opioid that was easily available was a low-potency Tramadol metabolite (which wouldn't put a dent in a real habit). Kids with serious addictions were ordering these analogs from China and it pretty much killed the research chemical scene. People dropped off the forums after asking for dosing advice far too often.

So what I'm getting at is that I think the problem started organically and police likely took the narrative and rolled with it.