Families of teenagers who died after consuming adulterated drugs purchased via Snapchat or other social networks called on these platforms on Monday to act against this scourge.
“I am here to warn people about the dangers of social networks through which drugs and other crimes come into our lives, through our children”, explains Sam Chapman, who came to demonstrate in front of the headquarters of Snapchat, a sharing application of videos and photos popular with young people in Santa Monica.
His son Sammy died in February 2021 of poisoning with fentanyl, an extremely powerful and addictive opiate which he was unaware of was present in the counterfeit pill he had obtained on Snapchat.
The young man should have celebrated his 18th birthday last weekend.
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The teenager was in his room one Sunday evening, watching the final of the American football championship.
“About an hour after bringing him food, we found him dead on the ground in a characteristic posture,” said Mr. Chapman, 57.
"He had stopped breathing, had fallen backwards from his chair and choked on his own vomit", a situation unfortunately very common among young people who think they are using recreational drugs but who unknowingly ingest fentanyl, he says.
Of the 107,000 deaths by overdoses recorded last year in the United States, 70% were caused by "fentanyl poisoning", the leading cause of death now for Americans aged 18 to 45, indicate associations to the origin of this event.