“But we know neither of these approaches are perfect, and dealers change their language constantly to evade this.” “Police often look to social media to tackle the issue as a result, whether that’s banning a hashtag or implementing AI to locate videos and captions with drugs in them,” he told i. Jake Moore, a cyber security specialist and former police officer stationed within the Digital Forensics Unit and Cyber Crime Team in Dorset, said a lack of funding was a key factor as to why forces in the UK have struggled to investigate drugs on social media. The 2019 European Drug Report called this phenomenon the “uberisation” of drugs highlighting the ease in which anyone could order and receive drugs thanks to social media. The comments section was used to tell viewers how to purchase them. Many of the videos on TikTok for cannabis edibles were filmed like cooking tutorials, taking the user step by step through the process of making the product. Voteface also found that cannabis was the most commonly advertised drug on these platforms at 63 per cent. Magic mushrooms being sold on TikTok (Photo: TikTok) Of those polled, 22 per cent knew friends who had bought drugs on social media, and 56 per cent had seen drugs on Snapchat, 55 per cent on Instagram and 47 per cent on Facebook. A 2019 report from Volteface, an advocacy organisation that seeks to reduce the harm drugs pose to individuals and society, polled more than 2,000 16-24 year-olds and found one in four reported seeing drugs advertised to them on social media. This is not the first time drugs have been easily found and bought over Instagram and Snapchat. In some instances customers were directed to a separate page on Telegram, Instagram or Snapchat to order. Prices were not listed and users were encouraged to direct message to find them out. On three occasions during i‘s search of the platform, TikTok’s “suggested accounts” function effectively directed to more dealers after one was found. Drug-related deaths rise to the highest level since records began during year of Covid pandemic
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