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1 1 (December 15, 2022)

handle is hein.crs/govejtv0001 and id is 1 raw text is: L Congressional AResearch Service- Policing Drug Trafficking on Social Media December 15, 2022 The drug overdose epidemic has continued to worsen in the United States over the last several years as synthetic opioids, particularly illicit fentanyl, are currently driving drug overdose deaths. Of specific concern to law enforcement is a primary method through which many individuals, especially teenagers, unlawfully purchase illicit fentanyl and other controlled substances-social media. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Anne Milgram recently called Snapchat and other social media platforms the superhighway of drugs. Individuals connect with drug dealers via social media and can quickly acquire illicit drugs, often with little evidence of the transaction. Distributing and Acquiring Illicit Drugs Via Social Media Drug traffickers solicit customers, and drug users seek to purchase drugs, via a range of online marketplaces both on the surface web and the dark web. On the surface web, these marketplaces include e-commerce websites, mobile applications, online forums, and social media platforms such as Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube. Illicit drugs offered on these social media sites include, but are not limited to, methamphetamine, heroin, and fentanyl. In addition, fentanyl and other drugs are often falsely marketed as legitimate prescription pills, but instead are counterfeit pills that were illicitly manufactured and are illegally distributed. According to the DEA, 6 out of 10 fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills contain a potentially lethal dose. Traffickers and buyers make use of a host of social media features such as temporary or disappearing posts that help conceal their activities. In addition, certain emojis and their combinations are used to signal illicit drugs. After initial contact on social media sites, sellers and buyers may move their communications to encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp, Signal, or Telegram to arrange the transactions. Internal and External Policing of Social Media Law enforcement and criminal justice officials have noted the evolving role that social media platforms play in the sale of illicit drugs. However, the portion of illicit drugs that are acquired, at least in part, using social media is unknown. Some companies have developed artificial intelligence models to detect online drug trafficking; one such company reportedly detects about 10,000 new drug-related accounts online each month. Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov IN12062 CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

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