A dealer on social media killed someone in Nevada, too.

The March 2021 death brings PSM’s tally of affected states to 13.

Snap, Inc. is working to respond to bereaved parents and, now, the Drug Enforcement Administration, who are pressuring them to stop drug trafficking on Snapchat. As they do, it is clearer and clearer that the public has no idea of the scope of the harm these dealers have done.

This week’s news, for example, yielded the story of Adrianna Folks, a 21-year-old in Las Vegas, Nevada whose father found her dead in her bedroom on March 4th. Investigators allege that a drug dealer, also 21, who bought and sold “Xanax” and “oxycodone” on Snapchat using “yungdrugaddict” as a screen name, was the source of the pills that killed Folks.

This death in Nevada brings PSM’s count of publicly reported Snapchat pill deaths to a tragic 13 U.S. states. Another seven states have issued warnings or have prosecutions underway. It would be a mistake to be too attached to this number, however: PSM relies on media coverage, the reports of family members and court records to find these cases, and they often go unreported.

Snapchat is very popular with vulnerable young people, but the social media site is not alone. Federal grand juries in California and Georgia have indicted alleged dealers for selling fake pills via Facebook Messenger and Instagram, and documents related to the prosecution of Eric Kay, who allegedly provided L.A. Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs with deadly fentanyl pills, say that he coordinated sales through the online marketplace, OfferUp. Drug dealers will use any online platform that works.

 

Fake pill deaths linked to Snapchat

Learn about this part of the fake pill crisis here...