PUNTA GORDA, Fla.—Parents need to know how to protect their children from “digital drug dealers,” Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has warned.
Moody said during summer vacation months children have more time to spend on the internet and has released an Informational Toolkit that educate parents on what social media methods drug dealers use to sell illicit drugs to children.
Sometimes those drugs contain deadly amounts of fentanyl—a synthetic opioid that killed more than 70,000 people in America in 2021.
On June 13, Moody released a statement on this growing problem and described how drug dealers are using popular apps and utilize emojis as code words to advance their sale of illegal drugs.
“Drug dealers are utilizing the internet to conduct their illicit business—often using social media to pressure children into purchasing deadly substances,” Moody said in a released statement.
“Sadly, we are reminded almost daily that one pill laced with fentanyl can kill. I hope this resource can help families better understand the risks associated with drug use and avoid tragedy.”
In 2019, Moody was named chair of the newly created Statewide Task Force on Opioid Abuse.
Opioids are described as a “family of drugs” that include prescription painkillers like hydrocodone and oxycodone—but there are also illegal drugs such as heroin and synthetic painkillers like fentanyl.
Fentanyl has been blamed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for 70 percent of overdose deaths.
In a 2020 interim report from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) and the Medical Examiners Commission, there were slightly more than 3,800 opioid-related deaths in the state, an increase of 30 percent from 2019 data.
The most current figures gauging drug habits in youth across the state, a 2020 Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey (FYSAS), showed young people between the ages of 12 to 25 are in a “very high-risk group” who misuse opioids.
Middle and high school addiction rates “remained low” overall in Florida.
The survey was answered by 52,093 students across the state in grades six through 12 attending 362 middle schools and 321 high schools in February and March of 2020.
Moody described the goal of the campaign “Dose of Reality” as public awareness, education and prevention effort to warn about the dangers of opioids, both prescription and illegal painkillers.
Its website provides a group of professionals, as well as parents, with information on opioid-related resources in a “one-stop-shop” format including prevention methods, safe pain management, safe storage, and guidelines on responding to an overdose.
Also included on the website is a map of the state’s take-back locations that accept opioids for safe disposal.
In May Gov. Ron DeSantis followed recommendations for the Task Force and signed into law HB95, a measure that will increase sentences for trafficking fentanyl. Now dealers are facing death sentences or life in prison if they distribute methamphetamine that results in death. The law goes into effect on Oct. 1.
Other changes in the law will increase the minimum mandatory prison terms for people convicted of trafficking fentanyl.
Under the new measure, if a person traffics amounts between 14 and 28 grams of fentanyl they will face 15 years to 20 years in state prison.
“Yes, someone dealing fentanyl is murdering people, and they’re going to prison in the state of Florida. And that is appropriate,” DeSantis said in May before signing the bill.
“But the ultimate goal is to save lives,” Moody said. “We can defeat the opioid crisis by working together.”
