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America’s top drug officials are turning their attention to social media platforms as they warn that fentanyl dealers are now in the pockets of every teen.
The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) said it is investigating 120 fentanyl overdose cases involving purchases made at the sites. It also warns that emoji code languages are used to help young shoppers avoid suspicion from their parents.
Fentanyl has single-handedly fueled a new drug epidemic in the US. The synthetic opioid was responsible for 70 percent of the more than 100,000 overdose deaths in 2021 and the number of teens killed by the drug has tripled since that the pandemic started.
It is used as a powerful cutting agent, and drug dealers mix everything from cocaine to Xanax to Percocet. But the terrifyingly strong drug can kill in doses of just 2 milligrams of fentanyl, or the equivalent of five grains of salt.
The DEA warns that teenagers are using emojis as code to buy illicit drugs. These include a pill to signify Percocet, Adderall, and MDMA, plant emojis to signify marijuana, and snow to represent cocaine. The agency warns that many illicit drugs are contaminated with lethal amounts of fentanyl.
The chart above shows CDC estimates for the number of drug overdose deaths each year in the United States. It reveals that the numbers have now reached a record high and are increasing in the past three years.
Adolescent deaths from fentanyl overdose (gray line) have tripled since the covid pandemic began (dotted line between 2019 and 2020). Scientists say this may be related to mixing the synthetic opioid with other drugs such as cocaine and heroin.
“We’re no longer talking about meeting on the street and making that connection … the dealer is in his son’s pocket along with the phone,” said DEA Assistant Attorney General Lisa Monaco. CBS.
He warned that most people who die from a fentanyl overdose don’t even know they’re using the drug.
“That is a poisoning,” he added.
A record 107,622 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), up from 93,655 the year before.
That’s more than the number of Americans who died in the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Vietnam combined.
While the drug crisis in the United States has affected people of all ages, races, and geographic regions of the country, adolescents have been especially affected.
But there are particularly steep increases among the young. The US suffered 884 adolescent deaths from fentanyl in 2021, according to a study from the University of California, Los Angeles.
This is a 30 percent increase from the 680 registered in 2020 and a 250 percent jump from the 253 registered in 2019.
The DEA, CDC, Department of Justice and other US authorities have declared the situation a public health crisis.
Ms Monaco is calling on social media platforms to do more to crack down on illicit drug sales on her platform.
“Frankly, they need to use the same tools and technology that allow them to exquisitely display those ads for all sorts of things that we’re buying online and identify those drug dealers and get them out,” he said.
The DEA has also released a guide for parents, educators and other authority figures to recognize when teens may be buying drugs.
It highlights how emojis are used as code to buy drugs.
The pill emoji can be used to represent Percocet, Oxycodone, Xanax, Adderall, or MDMA.
Meanwhile, emojis of snow, an eight ball and diamonds could indicate that a teenager is buying cocaine.
Marijuana, the most popular illicit drug among American teens, can be represented with plant or smoke emojis.
Dealers advertising drugs often use the plug emoji, along with others indicating money. A cookie means they have a large batch available and a red sheet is a universal sign that applies to all drugs.
Data released today by the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that 41 percent of American teens used an illicit drug in 2022, a number that remained the same as the previous year.
Marijuana is by far the most popular, with 38 percent of teens reporting its use. Just over 13 percent of teens used an illicit drug other than marijuana this year.
The most popular of the other drugs were hallucinogens, which include LSD, psilocybin, and DMT.