As the U.S. faces a major opioid crisis, a crime prevention group is calling on the Justice Department to limit the role of social media in the spread of fentanyl, the drug that is largely responsible for an alarming increase in overdose deaths.
The National Crime Prevention Council sent a letter Wednesday to Attorney General Merrick Garland, asking for an investigation. The group is said to be particularly concerned about the sale of fentanyl pills on Snapchat, a very popular platform among teenagers.
Overdose deaths in the US hit a record last year, with an average of one death every five minutes in the US. Among teens ages 10 to 19, deaths rose 109 percent between 2019 and 2021, according to monthly averages from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The vast majority of those deaths, 84 percent, involved fentanyl, according to a report released last week.
Traders use multiple social media and money exchange platforms, sometimes in the same transactions, but the encrypted technology of Snapchat and the disappearing ones messages make arrests especially difficult, DePonte said.
Snapchat's parent company, for its part, said it has taken significant steps to improve it better safetys on the platform and saw a drop in user reports of drug sales of more than 23% last year.
Jennifer Stout, Snap's vice president of global public policy, said the company uses technology to identify and remove such posts and supports police investigations. "We will continue to do everything we can to address this national crisis."
Neville, who calls Snap's recent changes "a little Band-Aid on an open wound," is another who filed a lawsuit against California against the company. The lawsuit cites several teenagers and young adults across the country who have died from overdoses and was filed by the Social Media Victims Law Center, which is now representing 28 families whose children bought pills through Snapchat.
The Drug Enforcement Administration called fentanyl “the deadliest drug threat facing the country” and that “social media apps are the perfect drug delivery tool” naming Facebook platforms as well, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. .