The opioid crisis raging in America is an all-hands-on-deck emergency, calling for local and national actions to stem the tide of lethal drugs making their way to our streets. Unfortunately, some major players are dropping the ball.
Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Anne Milgram told “Meet the Press” Sunday that social media has played a vital part in the sale of fentanyl. She noted how drug cartels use the various platforms to market their material to people.
“Social media is also a vital part of the conversation. It is what I call the last mile. Because what the cartels need — they’re selling the deadliest poison we’ve ever seen,” Milgram said before moderator Chuck Todd interrupted..
“They need a platform to advertise?” he injected.
“Exactly,” Milgram replied. “To be able to expand and sell more, they need to be able to reach people at massive rates. And that’s what social media’s doing.”
But, as The Hill reported, social media companies are not stepping up to the plate as stakeholders in the fight against illegal drugs.
“We’ve been in conversations with the social media companies. The Deputy Attorney General convened all of us in April of this year and made it very clear, number one, that the companies have to comply with their own terms of service, which say, ‘This is illegal. You cannot be selling fake pills. You cannot be selling drugs on social media websites,’” Milgram told Todd.
“Number two, law enforcement needs to get information from the social media companies. We have not, until recently, gotten nearly as much cooperation as we need,” she added. “And finally, this is an outright emergency. So they need to be doing absolutely everything they can to get the deadly drugs off their platform.”
We see the effects of easy access to these dugs every day.
The FDA approved over-the-counter sales of the opioid overdose-reversing drug Narcan in March. It should be on shelves later this year. The goal is to save as many lives as possible. That such a step is necessary speaks to the perniciousness of opioid addiction in this country.
Border patrol agents do their best to stem the tide of drugs at the border, but that’s just a slice of the pie.
Just this weekend, a suspected 61-year-old overdose victim was found at Pope John Paul II Park on Sunday morning. According to the Herald, two telltale “empty plastic baggies” were on the ground near the unidentified Quincy man, State Police reported.
In Boston, 352 people died from opioid overdoses last year, a nearly 7% increase from 2021 (330 total deaths). From 2019 to 2022, Boston experienced a 36% increase in opioid-related deaths, more than twice the statewide rate of increase (16%) over the same time period.
Even if the social media companies who provide the platforms for cartels to ply their trade don’t know the exact statistics on opioid addiction and death, they have to be aware at least at the scope of the problem.
Non-compliance can
not be an option.
