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AGENCY TESTIMONY
Challenges with drug marketing on social media and encrypted platforms
5:30:51
ยท
100 sec
Bridget Brennan highlights the growing challenge of drug marketing on social media and encrypted platforms. This new method of drug distribution poses significant risks, especially to younger populations and seniors seeking cheaper medications.
- Social media and encrypted platforms are being used to market drugs, often misrepresented as legitimate medications
- These marketing tactics are particularly dangerous for children and seniors
- Federal prosecutors have tackled cases involving offshore spots delivering fentanyl-laced prescriptions purported to be from Canadian pharmacies
Bridget Brennan
5:30:51
again most of the regulation of the drugs coming into the country is coming at a federal level because New York City is a hub of all kinds of financial activity and banking activity.
5:31:07
It's also a hub for trafficking of narcotics.
5:31:11
And as a result, those drugs pour out into the city.
5:31:15
And so we rely on the federal government for much of the control of the substances.
5:31:21
We are seeing relief.
5:31:24
But one of the big areas, and we're going to have to figure out how to deal with this locally, is how the drugs are marketed.
5:31:32
We are seeing a profusion of drug marketing done on social media as well as platforms, encrypted platforms.
5:31:44
And those drugs that are sold there are reaching our children.
5:31:49
And they're often sold as, they may be sold as Adderall, as cheaper Adderall, as cheaper oxycodone.
5:31:57
And that's why we also go to talk to the seniors because seniors often have many medications that they are buying and they're looking for cheap purchases.
5:32:07
You may have seen that the federal prosecutors did a big case this past year involving offshore spots that were delivering prescriptions that purported to be from Canadian pharmacies and contain fentanyl.
5:32:26
And so we are enhancing our outreach efforts as well as our prosecution efforts.