we have profiled many families who lost children who bought a counterfeit pill they bought through social media there are social media apps that intentionally make it so that the information so someone creates a story on snapchat, that s a 24-hour story. reporter: that s why the kids like it. yes. and it s also why the drug traffickers like it. reporter: should social media companies be doing more to help you? yes there is no question in my mind that social media companies are not doing enough to stop this problem. reporter: her critique as social media companies come under increasing scrutiny for failing to protect younger users. in an exclusive interview today, the head of instagram announced they re pausing plans to create an app geared towards tweens the wall street journal recently reported on internal research showing the app may be harmful to the health of teenage girls. if anybody leaves using instagram feeling worse about themselves, that s an important issue w
overdose deaths this year already exceed the last fiscal year. and the last fiscal year was a record high for this country. and when you break it down, the number of americans who are dying every day is shocking. not only that, it s the nature of who is dying that has changed, which is really the part that we should be talking about. because this isn t about, you know, drug addicts on the streets of baltimore. something like that. this is about 12, 13, 14, 15-year-old girls and boys who think they are taking adderall to study they are taking a fake pill counterfeit pill made chinese chinese and mexican cartels. they are using that to undermine this country from within to kill innocent americans, do you know what mann from dea said to me. one very senior leader said to me i have dea agents trained to fight the cartels. trained go into battle.
he able to hang out with them. he bought what he thought was a blue m-30 oxycodone pill and what it turned out to be was a pill, a counterfeit pill made of any kind of binder and fentanyl. he only consumed half of that pill and it took his life. the media has it wrong when they are just talking about overdoses. what is happening is our children, first time users and recreational drug divliewfers can go into snapchat, order what they think is a trademarked pharmaceutical pill and in reality we see a counterfeit opioid. no child should be getting a death sentence when ingesting one of these counterfeit opioids. i think that is the biggest message that we have to get out to parents. that s devastating and as a mother myself i couldn t imagine. undoubtedly as we have seen throughout the pandemic, the lockdowns, the social distancing, they have all led to feels of isolation. now, amy, you know, we were listening to him talking about
oxycodone. he delivered it to our house, unbeknownst to us. my wife found my daughter dead in her bed the next morning. lawrence: that is heartbreaking story. all these stories. part of what people don t realize these are not just drugs. it is fentanyl that laces these drugs. obviously the drugs are already dangerous but they re being laced. well, they re not being laced. basically what they are is, what we call fentapills they re produced south of the border by criminal organizations. what they do, they make them look exactly like a pharmaceutical grade oxycodone or percocet or xanax. in reality a counterfeit opioid. pressed south of the border, sold through snapchat to unsuspecting children who think they re buying a pharmaceutical grade pill. what they re receive something a counterfeit pill.