Biden Official Says Social Media Companies Uncooperative in Addressing Fentanyl Crisis

DEA Administrator Anne Milgram speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, on April 14, 2023. Susan Walsh/AP Photo

Anne Milgram, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), has said that social media companies haven’t been as cooperative as they could have in addressing the fentanyl crisis.

“We have not until recently gotten nearly as much cooperation as we need,” she said on Sunday during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet The Press.”

Social media companies have to comply with their terms of service which say it’s illegal to sell drugs on their platforms and provide the requested information to law enforcement agencies including the DEA, Ms. Milgram said.

“This is an outright emergency, so they need to be doing absolutely everything they can to get the deadly drugs off their platforms,” she added.

According to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over two-thirds of the reported 107,081 drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2022 involved synthetic opioids, primarily illicitly manufactured fentanyl (IMF), other than methadone.

Fentanyl is involved in more deaths of Americans under 50 than any cause of death, including heart disease, cancer, homicide, suicide, and other accidents.

The United States had never had more than 100,000 overdose deaths in a single year prior to June 2021.

A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) chemist pours 2,500 packs of confirmed fentanyl onto a counter for testing at the DEA Northeast Regional Laboratory in New York on Oct. 8, 2019. Don Emmert/AFP via Getty Images

In an effort to address national drug control programs, the Biden administration has requested $46.1 billion from Congress, marking a $5 billion increase from the fiscal year 2022 request, and a $2.3 billion increase over the fiscal year 2023 enacted level.

Republicans have criticizing President Joe Biden’s border policies for the fentanyl crisis.

“I’ve been saying for some time now that this is no longer a border or state issue. Every state has become a border state with the fentanyl crisis. It’s impacting in different ways,” Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.) said during a congressional tour of Arizona’s southern border with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and other Republican congressmembers in February.

Ms. Milgram acknowledged that most fentanyl comes into the United States through the southwest border.

“The borders are an important part of this conversation because most of the fentanyl that we see coming into the United States is coming into the southwest border,” she said. “Fentanyl is coming in every way possible, by air, by land, by sea, by underground, but essentially coming in at very high rates through the southwest border.”

Social media is also a vital part of the crisis because it’s the “last mile” for the cartels to sell the fentanyl to users, Ms. Milgram stated.

Chinese Fentanyl Manufacturers Charged

In a historic move, the Justice Department filed criminal charges in June against four Chinese chemical manufacturing companies and eight individuals over allegations they illegally trafficked the chemicals used to make fentanyl.

The indictments mark the first time the United States has sought to prosecute any of the Chinese companies responsible for manufacturing precursor chemicals used to make the painkiller.

A display of the fentanyl and meth that was seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Nogales Port of Entry during a press conference in Nogales, Ariz., on Jan. 31, 2019. Mamta Popat/Arizona Daily Star via AP

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan announced the unsealing of an indictment against the China-based Hubei Amarvel Biotech, along with its executives Qingzhou Wang, 35, Yiyi Chen, 31, and Fnu Lnu, also known as Er Yang, with fentanyl trafficking, precursor chemical importation, and money laundering offenses.

In the Eastern District of New York, prosecutors announced the unsealing of two more indictments against three other Chinese companies and individuals accused of conspiring to manufacture and distribute fentanyl.

Prosecutors said the companies—including one called Hebei Sinaloa Trading Co.—advertised precursor chemicals on social media in Mexico and the United States, and used false customs forms and mislabeled packages to ship the chemicals by boat and air.

Reuters and Katabella Roberts contributed to this report.