Social media, counterfeit drugs, kids and fentanyl
In September, the Drug Enforcement Administration issued a public warning that a growing number of fake pills bought online are contain potentially lethal amounts of the synthetic opioid fentanyl. The DEA went on to blame social media sites like TikTok and Snapchat for not doing more to protect their users who are purchasing counterfeit drugs on their sites.
In a Washington Post interview DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said, “We are in the midst, in my view, of an overdose crisis, and the counterfeit pills are driving so much of it.”
Parents need to be concerned about this epidemic because fentanyl is killing kids.
(See the related KOAT news story on teens and fentanyl here.)
Gone are the days when you had to actually know how to find the drug dealer in your town. Now drug dealers are on social media using hashtags and usernames to indicate they sell drugs and kids can find them within minutes. Thanks to disappearing messages on apps like Snapchat and Instagram, it’s difficult to trace these deals and it’s impossible for parents to see that their child is in danger.
Kids are finding and purchasing “prescription drugs” (actually counterfeit drugs containing fentanyl) on social media. It’s easy.
Kids are searching for highs with drugs like OxyContin, Percocet, Xanax, Adderall and others. They believe the black market drugs online are the same as the ones a doctor would prescribe. After all, they look the same, have the same branding, same color. They appear to be legitimate pharmaceuticals made by a reputable lab. But they’re not.
For black market producers, fentanyl is cheap and easy to get, but deadly. Even just 2 milligrams can kill a person.
Kids as young as 12 years old are dying, after taking a counterfeit pill containing fentanyl.
Alexander Neville was 14 and he took a fake Xanax (Snapchat).
Samuel Chapman Berman was 16 (Snapchat).
There are so many stories.
What parents can do
Talk to your kids. Tell them to only take prescription medications that have been prescribed to them. Not their friend’s medicine. Especially not a pill that gets handed to them without a prescription bottle. Even if it looks legitimate. Even if someone assures them “it’s real”.
Use a monitoring app to “see” when your child sends or receives messages about drugs
Get familiar with the emojis that are used for drugs. Here’s a list.
Here’s a sample - All of these emojis are used for marijuana. 🌿, 🍁, 🎄, 🍃, 🥦, 🍀, 🌴 (Go get your free list!)
Put pressure on social media companies to remove drug dealers immediately
More information - The U.S. is experiencing record levels of drug overdose
The U.S. recorded more than 100,000 drug overdose deaths in a 12-month period (ending in April 2021) for the first time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It's the highest number of drug overdose deaths ever recorded in a year. In the graphic below from the CDC, the brown line indicates synthetic opioids including fentanyl and is rising rapidly.
