Parents Call on Social Media Companies to Crack Down on Online Drug Trafficking

A report released Tuesday is calling on social media companies to crack down on online drug trafficking.

This comes after parents who have lost children to fentanyl say those sites like are not doing enough to stop sales of pills often containing the deadly drug.

The report came from parents and from retired law enforcement who say there are examples of the type of social media accounts tied to alleged drug sales.

They say that all it takes is a hashtag to find them. In some posts the drug names are hidden in slang, others are listed by emojis, they are so prevalent that the DEA has made an emoji decoder.

Now that same group is asking that social media companies identify these accounts, train staff to flag them and remove them within ten days.

“Child pornography and sexual exploitation and they have been able to get this generally under control and by getting rid of it,” said Steven Filson a commission member. “Why not same thing with illegal distribution of narcotics?”

Filson lost his daughter Jessica two years ago to cocaine overdose. He says the drug was laced with enough fentanyl to kill four people.

The 29-year-old didn’t buy the drug through a social media website or app but he understands what other parents have gone through.

“The common denominator among most of these people is social media and the ease in which their child was able to obtain an illicit drug from social media,” Filson said.

The group is also asking for quicker responses to investigators trying to locate drug dealers.

“Time is imperative. Delays result in deaths and all we’re asking is for them to do a better job,” Filson said.

In a statement to NBC4 Snapchat said they are making changes and that, “we use advanced technology to proactively detect and shut down drug dealers who try to abuse our platform, and block search results for dangerous drug-related content.”

“They contend they’re getting better but people are still dying while they’re trying to get better,” Filson said.

The group says as a whole they’d like to see more transparency among the social media sites. As foe Snapchat that company told NBC4 they will soon launch a campaign to educate parents and youth because 90% of 13 to 24-year-olds in this country use their app.