The head of the Food and Drug Administration bashed Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other popular social media sites for not doing enough to crack down on ads for illegal opioids.
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said during a policy summit in Atlanta Wednesday that many illicit drugs brought into the U.S., including the potent opioid fentanyl, are being shipped through U.S. mail. A key contributor are social media sites that advertise how to purchase them.
“Although the sale of prescription opioids without a valid prescription is illegal, the FDA continues to see these products in the packages we inspect,” Gottlieb said in prepared remarks. “And we find offers to purchase opioids all over social media and the Internet, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Google, Yahoo, and Bing.”
Gottlieb cited a recent congressional probe that found it was incredibly easy to buy fentanyl. Some ads even offered deeply discounted “flash sales” on products to entice purchases, Gottlieb said.
He said Internet companies aren’t taking practical steps to find and remove illegal opioid listings. Opioid overdoses killed more than 42,000 people in 2016, with fentanyl being a major driver in opioid overdoses.
“I’m concerned that social media companies, Internet service providers firms that host websites, and others in the Internet ecosystem haven’t been proactive enough in rooting out these illegal offers to distribute opioids from their respective platforms,” Gottlieb said. “I think we can work with them to do much more to address this public health danger.”
The FDA is expected to soon host a meeting with CEOs and other senior executives from Internet companies, academics and advocacy groups to determine the best ways to curb online opioid sales.
