Snapchat is Boosting Its Efforts To Root Out Drug Dealers (nbcnews.com) 45
Deadly counterfeit versions of prescription medications are "widely available on social media platforms," reports NBC News, and "2 in 5 of those seized and tested in the United States contain enough fentanyl to kill, according to a warning issued by the Drug Enforcement Administration last month."
So now Snapchat "said it has improved the automated systems it uses to detect the sale of illegal drugs on the app, hired more people to respond to law enforcement requests for data during criminal investigations and developed an in-app education portal called Heads Up focused on the dangers of fentanyl and counterfeit pills." "We have heard devastating stories from families impacted by this crisis, including cases where fentanyl-laced counterfeit pills were purchased from drug dealers on Snapchat," said Snapchat's parent company, Snap, in a blog post. "We are determined to remove illegal drug sales from our platform."
The announcement comes less than one week after NBC News profiled eight parents whose children had died after taking a single fentanyl-laced pill purchased on Snapchat.
On Sept. 27, DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said social media companies were not doing enough to stop the sale of counterfeit pills on their platforms...
Snap said improvements to its proactive detection tools — which use artificial intelligence to identify pictures, words and emojis related to drug sales — have allowed the company to increase the number of accounts removed by 112% during the first half of 2021. For the last six months, it has also been using intelligence from public health data company S-3, which scours the internet for drug sellers, to identify Snapchat accounts that are potentially violating the rules. S-3 does not search directly on Snapchat, but instead looks for dealers elsewhere — on other social media sites or the dark web — who reference a Snapchat account in their advertisements.
So now Snapchat "said it has improved the automated systems it uses to detect the sale of illegal drugs on the app, hired more people to respond to law enforcement requests for data during criminal investigations and developed an in-app education portal called Heads Up focused on the dangers of fentanyl and counterfeit pills." "We have heard devastating stories from families impacted by this crisis, including cases where fentanyl-laced counterfeit pills were purchased from drug dealers on Snapchat," said Snapchat's parent company, Snap, in a blog post. "We are determined to remove illegal drug sales from our platform."
The announcement comes less than one week after NBC News profiled eight parents whose children had died after taking a single fentanyl-laced pill purchased on Snapchat.
On Sept. 27, DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said social media companies were not doing enough to stop the sale of counterfeit pills on their platforms...
Snap said improvements to its proactive detection tools — which use artificial intelligence to identify pictures, words and emojis related to drug sales — have allowed the company to increase the number of accounts removed by 112% during the first half of 2021. For the last six months, it has also been using intelligence from public health data company S-3, which scours the internet for drug sellers, to identify Snapchat accounts that are potentially violating the rules. S-3 does not search directly on Snapchat, but instead looks for dealers elsewhere — on other social media sites or the dark web — who reference a Snapchat account in their advertisements.
Counterfeit Pain Killer Pills Killed Prince (Score:2)
The Artist That Was Formerly Known As Prince, who became Prince again, died from counterfeit hydrocodone painkillers that actually contained a lethal amount of fentanyl.
Re: Counterfeit Pain Killer Pills Killed Prince (Score:2)
probably someone was obtaining them for him. to increase their profit margins, they went through a less than trustworthy source.
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Re: Counterfeit Pain Killer Pills Killed Prince (Score:2)
This all sounds fair.
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Another round of the "whack a mole" war on drugs.
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I'd argue that the low-dose opiates which were most common were never really that big of a problem to begin with, and to the extent they were, were much easier to manage than full-on heroin addiction. If they had just cracked down on the worst offenders (high-dose oxycontin, etc) and let the low dose misuse slide, we wouldn't have shifted tens of thousands of people into the heroin market, which lacked the elasticity to handle the influx of new consumers and thus created the market for fentanyl.
I've had wi
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While I can see abusive and illegal prescribing (eg, dentists) allowing some people to get addicted, I just don't think this was that widespread. I'm 54 and have never experienced a prescriber who would refill an opioid prescription without a compelling reason.
I think the narrative on this is ridiculous overall. Small-time, non-repeat low dose prescriptions of opioids are not the problem here. Even regular use -- like 5 mg oxycodone/hydrocodone a day isn't going to cause an addiction, the half life isn't
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I'm 54 and have never experienced a prescriber who would refill an opioid prescription without a compelling reason.
What percentage of all the doctors in the US do you suppose you have visited in those 54 years? A small number of them are responsible for a hugely disproportionate amount of the problem prescriptions.
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I figured my experience over 54 years was a reasonable sample for someone who does not suffer a condition likely to gain repeated access to opioids. The "opioid issue" has also been sold as a chronic widespread problem requiring substantial cutbacks in general painkiller availability, not a targeted problem caused by illegal pill mills or some narrow subset of medical practitioners, mostly around the idea that they're *so addictive* that we can't treat serious, incidental pain with them.
It's not like back-
Addiction is complicated (Score:2)
I still don't comprehend all the people who claim to have gotten addicted from a single 20-30 pill prescription for low dose opiates. There's not enough opiates to get addicted 5 mg per day, and not enough duration if you're cranking through them 20-30 mg per day. I'd also question the people who aren't already tolerant of opiates to suddenly start cranking down 20-30 mg per day. I was prescribed that much right after my hand surgery and I could barely tolerate the nausea and sluggishness when pretty strong pain was the alternative.
You are confusing chemical dependence and addiction.
Addicts have brains that work differently to non-addicts. Addicts will become addicted, non-addicts will not.
It is possible to become chemically dependent on a substance, but not be an addict. Chemical dependence comes about from repeated exposure leading to the body adapting to the presence of the chemical. It can be reversed, usually by weaning the person off of the chemical.
Addiction is a matter of neurology. An addict may not know they are an addic
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He wouldn't have been able to get an unlimited supply from the doctor. The number of milligrams you can prescribe to a patient per day is capped. Since Michael Jackson's doctor went to prison it's been harder even in Hollywood to find a doctor that doesn't give a shit. So once you burn through your quota, you need to go through extralegal channels for more, and they won't necessarily tell you the pills are fake. IIRC Tom Petty and Lil Peep also had fentanyl overdoses, all within a few years of each other.
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You do realize they are stopping dealers from selling lethal drugs, right?
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So? They are not forcing it on you, making you consume and pay for it. (what entity does this?)
It's a product that can be lethal, just like many other products. Heck I bought a pistol last week from another person, and it was 100% legal. So lets not make this about anything other than what it is, a way for the government to lock up those people it doesn't like. This provides do nothing jobs for bullies, do nothing jobs for lawyers, and ensures we keep the darkies in their place. It also gives governme
In my day (Score:2)
Creaky Dana Carvey old man voice: In my day, we didn't need no stinkin' snapchat to make deals, heck the cellphone hadn't even been invented yet, let alone smartphones. We went to This Guy outside the library doors before first period and bought nickel bags of 'lumbo that mighta lasted us til we got home. And we liked it! And nobody died. And what the f_k is fentanyl?
Re: Isn't that a selfie sexting site? (Score:2)
Starts singing, "two hookers and an 8-ball"
Congress' fault (Score:2)
Congress needs to legalize weed and magic mushrooms. Have states manage it like alcohol.
Biden should also start removing thousands of Chinese students from the US until China cuts off the fentanyl pipeline to Mexico.
Doing both would cause an epic change in the drug war.
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And section 230 provides too much protection for internet platforms when it comes to the drug trade and child porn.
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Congress needs to legalize weed
I believe Congress needs to pick a side. Not enforcing laws they write is a mockery of law. States made marijuana trade legal in spite of federal law and they do nothing. By not doing anything on marijuana then voters can believe their congress-critter agree with them, by picking a side it's like the quantum state collapses and the cat in the box is no longer both dead and alive.
Another mockery of federal law is seeing states and cities not enforce immigration law, offering "sanctuary". Congress needs t
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I believe Congress needs to pick a side. Not enforcing laws they write is a mockery of law.
No, it's separation of powers. Congress is not in charge of enforcing laws, the executive branch is.
Another mockery of federal law is seeing states and cities not enforce immigration law, offering "sanctuary".
It's not the responsibility of states and cities to enforce federal law.
One is oversight on the executive branch
Sadly, Congress has pretty much abdicated that responsibility.
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Honest question: (Score:2)
If they really want to reduce fentanyl overdoses then wouldn't it be more effective to just give the cartels machines to properly mix the powder? I mean, the cause of the overdoses is the drugs contain concentrated fentanyl due to pathetic mixing methods ("put it in a ziplock bag and shake" pathetic) therefore providing a simple powder mixer would eliminate lethal doses from being sold.
Just sayin'.
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The best way would be to decriminalize all drug sales and purchases, and provide free or at least at-cost drug rehab programs to everyone. Another big help would be to house the homeless, studies have shown that's one of the best ways to improve their lot and there's a huge drug abuse problem among that community. The whole notion that you can stop drug abuse by criminalizing it has been a massive failure on a human rights level, although obviously it has helped concentrate money and power in the federal go
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Oh yeah I’m sure the cartels have trouble affording equipment It’s the lower level dealers not knowing they have fentanyl and how much stronger it is.
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it's not about affording, it's about knowing and having.
Re: Honest question: (Score:1)
The cartels have sufficient funding to have the highest grade drug lab manufacturing systems in the world.
They arenâ(TM)t doing so because they donâ(TM)t give a shit about the few users that are dying. As long as there are users, there will be problems, we need to institutionalize those that are living on the streets injecting themselves with this crap, institutionalize anyone that is arrested for being high in public and actually keep people in jail that are doing the drug running.
Right now all t
Who would do this? (Score:2)
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Who was buying drugs for their kids off Snapchat?
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Who was buying drugs for their kids off Snapchat?
The eight people profiled by NBC which you can read about in the article linked in the Slashdot summary.
I know it is traditional to not read the articles, but reading the summary of the articles seems to be a minimalist expectation that anyone who can pull up Slashdot in a browser should be able to meet.
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Show me where it says the parents bought the drugs for their kids. The kids bought the drugs. Though calling them all "kids" implies they were minors which not all of them were, some were over 18 and living on their own.
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Well... I did say it was traditional to not read the article, which is exactly what I failed to do. Mea culpa and my apologies for the slight sarcasm caused by my own incomplete understanding.
Now that I have read the article, I see that it describes a variety of young people with the means and ability to execute on-line transactions were illegally buying drugs on-line apparently without their parents notice. Some as young as early teens, at least one who was 19. That is obviously bad, but not nearly as
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You mean who buys the exact same drugs made overseas that are marked up 500 or more percent, from sources that cut out the middleman? I'm very suspicious that Big Pharmy is threatened by smart people who do that.
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The same people buying their covid medication from a livestock supply store.
The government made them do it? (Score:2)
The gist of the arguments I've read so far (only 23 or 24 posts) seems to be that the government somehow made people addicts which made them buy counterfeit pills off of Slashdot which then killed them.
Really? Is it so hard to believe in personal responsibilities along with personal freedoms?
I've prescribed barbiturates and/or opiate products three times in my life. The first time I filled the prescription but never used the product as I judged the benefit to not be worth the risk of addiction. The se
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The gist of the arguments I've read so far (only 23 or 24 posts) seems to be that the government somehow made people addicts which made them buy counterfeit pills off of Slashdot which then killed them.
Substitute "Snapchat" for "Slashdot". Sheesh. I shouldn't have had Everclear instead of orange juice for breakfast this morning.
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The thing is "it's their own fault" and therefore let's not do anything to make the situation better makes society worse. Huge amounts of money are spent on medical care for overdoses. Families are ruined. Yes we could just tell the children who just lost their parent to an overdose that it's too bad Daddy didn't make better choices. Or we could enact policies that make things better for everyone (except the Sackoffs) even if it "rewards" people for bad choices.