Online sales of counterfeit prescription pills containing fentanyl are on the rise, and experts say social media apps like Snapchat and TikTok are driving the surge, including in Tennessee.
Shabbir Safdar, executive director of the Partnership for Safe Medicines, said an alarming number of counterfeit prescription pills containing fentanyl are being bought online by teens and young adults.
“And in fact, just in the last four years, we’ve tracked fatalities in 19 different states from people who’ve met a drug trafficker on Snapchat and then bought a fake pill,” Safdar said.
According to the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, more than 2,000 Tennesseans died of fentanyl-related drug overdoses in 2020, more than double the number in 2019.