For every illegal drug, there is a combination of emojis that dealers and consumers use to evade detection on social media and messaging platforms. Snowflakes, snowfall, and snowmen symbolize cocaine. Love hearts, lightning bolts, and pill capsules mean MDMA, or molly. Brown hearts and dragons represent heroin. Grapes and baby bottles are the calling cards for codeine-containing cough syrup, or lean. The humble maple leaf, meanwhile, is the universal symbol for all drugs.
The proliferation of open drug dealing on Instagram, Snapchat, and X—as well as on encrypted messaging platforms Telegram and WhatsApp—has transformed the fabric of illegal substance procurement, gradually making it more convenient, and arguably safer, for consumers, who can receive packages in the mail without meeting people on street corners or going through the rigmarole of the dark web. There is no reliable way to gauge drug trafficking on social media, but the European Union Drugs Agency acknowledged in its latest report on the drivers of European drug sales that purchases brokered through such platforms “appear to be gaining in prominence.”
Initial studies into drug sales on social media began to be published in 2012. Over the next decade, piecemeal studies began to reveal a notable portion of drug sales were being mediated by social platforms. In 2021, it was estimated some 20 percent of drug purchases in Ireland were being arranged through social media. In the US in 2018 and Spain in 2019, a tenth of young people who used drugs appear to have connected with dealers through the internet, with the large majority doing so through social media, according to one small study.
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Teen drug use continued to fall in 2024, extending a dramatic decline spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic that experts expected would reverse now that the acute phase of the global crisis is well over.
But, according to data released Tuesday, the number of eighth, 10th, and 12th graders who collectively abstained from the use of alcohol, marijuana, or nicotine hit a new high this year. Use of illicit drugs also fell on the whole and use of non-heroin narcotics (Vicodin, OxyContin, Percocet) hit an all-time low.
"Many experts in the field had anticipated that drug use would resurge as the pandemic receded and social distancing restrictions were lifted," Richard Miech, team lead of the Monitoring the Future survey at the University of Michigan, said in a statement. "As it turns out, the declines have not only lasted but have dropped further."
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One of Dr. Mo Sarhan’s patients was experiencing intense cravings for opioids and alcohol when the Florida-based doctor offered him a striking solution: the Eli Lilly weight-loss drug Mounjaro.
“Within days, all of his cravings were gone and he was much more effective in his engagement and treatment. He’s done great since,” Sarhan says.
Sarhan and his colleague Steven Klein at the Caron Treatment Centers in Florida and Pennsylvania have prescribed a range of so-called glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1s) to treat addictions, using them alongside traditional therapies, to around 75 patients.
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Earlier this fall, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported data showing that adult obesity rates—long trending upwards—had fallen modestly over the past few years, from 41.9 to 40.3 percent. The decline sparked discussion on social media and in major news outlets about whether the US has passed so-called “peak obesity”—and whether the growing use of certain weight-loss drugs might account for the shift.
An opinion piece in the Financial Times suggested that the public health world might look back on the current moment in much the same way that it now reflects on 1963, when cigarette sales hit their high point and then dropped dramatically over the following decades. The article’s author, John Burn-Murdoch, speculated that the dip is “highly likely” to be caused by the use of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, or GLP-1s, for weight loss.
It's easy to see why one might make that connection. Although GLP-1s have been used for nearly two decades in the treatment of type 2 diabetes, their use for obesity only took off more recently. In 2014, the Food and Drug Administration approved a GLP-1 agonist named Saxenda specifically for this purpose. Then in the late 2010s, a GLP-1 drug named Ozempic, made from the active ingredient semaglutide, began to be used off-label. The FDA also authorized Wegovy, another semaglutide-based GLP-1 medication, explicitly for weight loss in 2021.
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Outgoing GOP Rep. Anthony D'Esposito, R-N.Y., is gunning to be the next leader of President-elect Donald Trump's Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), after Trump's first nominee withdrew his name from the running, a source familiar with the situation told Fox News Digital.
D'Esposito has been working to consolidate support from regional law enforcement unions to support his bid, and he has been actively making calls to people in Trump’s orbit to get his name to the top, the source indicated, adding that D'Esposito has been "campaigning pretty hard for this."
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Trump nominated Florida Sheriff Chad Chronister for the role over the weekend, but Chronister withdrew his name from consideration on Tuesday. Chronister's decision came amid criticism from Republicans over how he handled lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.
THOMAS MASSIE, CONSERVATIVE COMMENTATORS VOCALLY OPPOSE TRUMP'S DEA NOMINEE
After first being elected in 2022 to represent a Long Island congressional district that voted for President Biden in 2020, D'Esposito lost his bid for re-election last month to Democrat Laura Gillen.
On Wednesday, the Nassau County Detectives Association lobbied for Trump to nominate D'Esposito to be the next head of the DEA, which is an agency within the Department of Homeland Security. Trump's next DEA chief would be his point man to help stem the massive flow of fentanyl making its way into the U.S.
"As a respected member of Congress, D’Esposito has demonstrated leadership & commitment needed to help DJT in his goal of Making America Safe Again," the group wrote on social media Wednesday.
Fox News Digital reached out to Trump's transition team to glean more details on where D'Esposito stands in terms of being named the next head of the DEA, but did not receive an on-the-record response by publication time.
A Russian court has issued a life sentence to a man found guilty of being the kingpin of a dark web drug marketplace that supplied more than a metric ton of narcotics and psychotropic substances to customers around the world.
On Monday, the court found that Stanislav Moiseyev oversaw Hydra, a Russian-language market that operated an anonymous website that matched sellers of drugs and other illicit wares with buyers. Hydra was dismantled in 2022 after authorities in Germany seized servers and other infrastructure used by the sprawling billion-dollar enterprise and a stash of bitcoin worth millions of dollars. At the time, Hydra was the largest crime forum, having facilitated $5 billion in transactions for 17 million customers. The market had been in operation since 2015.
“The court established that from 2015 to October 2018, the criminal community operated in various regions of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus,” the state prosecutor’s office of the Moscow Region said. “The well-covered activities of the organized criminal group were aimed at systematically committing serious and especially serious crimes related to the illegal trafficking of drugs and psychotropic substances.”
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President Biden pardoned son Hunter Biden Sunday after repeatedly vowing he would not spare him from sentencing in a pair of separate federal court cases.
Biden has just under 47 days remaining in the Oval Office before President-elect Trump’s inauguration as the 47th president.
As Biden’s term comes to an end, a handful of elected officials and others have called on the president to issue pardons for other Americans, including the suggestion of "preemptive pardons" for Democrats ahead of Trump’s second term.
Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey claimed after the election he expects Trump to act in a "fascistic way" as president and called on Biden to pardon Democrats who could face prosecution under a second Trump administration.
"I think that, without question, Trump is going to try to act in a dictatorial way, in a fascistic way, in a revengeful first year at least of his administration toward individuals who he believes harmed him," Markey claimed during a local radio interview last month.
"If it’s clear by Jan. 19 that that is his intention, then I would recommend to President Biden that he provide those preemptive pardons to people because that’s really what our country is going to need next year."
Trump has long accused Democrats and the Biden administration of employing "lawfare" against him as he battled charges from racketeering to falsifying business records, with supporters such as Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., proclaiming last month that "accountability is coming" for those who targeted Trump.
Under Markey’s argument, Biden could preemptively pardon Democrats who directly prosecuted Trump on charges Trump has slammed as "shams" and "witch hunts."
A handful of congressional Democrats — most notably representatives Ayanna Pressley, Mary Gay Scanlon and James Clyburn — called on Biden last month in a letter to issue sweeping pardons to convicts in a bid to "reunite families, address longstanding injustices in our legal system, and set our nation on the path toward ending mass incarceration."
The lawmakers requested the president pardon those who have languished in prison systems for years and rectify "draconian" sentences imposed on criminals. The letter specifically called for the president to consider pardons for the "elderly and chronically ill, those on death row, people with unjustified sentencing disparities, and women who were punished for defending themselves against their abusers."
SPECIAL COUNSEL, IRS WHISTLEBLOWERS SAY DON'T BUY BIDEN'S ‘SPIN’ ABOUT HUNTER BIDEN LEGAL SAGA
"Now is the time to use your clemency authority to rectify unjust and unnecessary criminal laws passed by Congress and draconian sentences given by judges. The grant of pardons and commutations and the restoration of rights will undoubtedly send a powerful message across the country in support of fundamental fairness and furthering meaningful criminal justice reform," they wrote in a letter to Biden last month.
Outgoing Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, a vocal critic of Trump's, said earlier this year Biden should have pardoned Trump from his indictments.
"[Biden] should have fought like crazy to keep this prosecution from going forward," Romney told MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle in May. "It was a win-win for Donald Trump.
"You may disagree with this, but had I been President Biden, when the Justice Department brought on indictments, I would have immediately pardoned him," he said. "I'd have pardoned President Trump. Why? Well, because it makes me, President Biden, the big guy and the person I pardoned a little guy."
Biden pardoning Trump is unlikely to happen and would only apply to his federal charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith. Legal cases against Trump have stalled since his win last month.
ROMNEY SUGGESTS BIDEN MADE 'ENORMOUS ERROR' IN NOT PARDONING TRUMP: 'IT WAS A WIN-WIN'
Biden has pardoned 26 people during nearly four years in office, a review of DOJ data shows. The majority of those individuals were convicted of drug crimes, such as conspiracy to distribute marijuana, conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine or conspiracy to manufacture, distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine and cocaine base.
In October, seven Senate Judiciary Committee members and Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock sent a letter to Biden calling on him to commute sentences for individuals who would have been handed shorter sentences under the 2018 First Step Act. The First Step Act was a criminal justice reform bill Trump signed into law following bipartisan support that reduced mandatory minimum sentences for some drug crimes.
"This Administration has the opportunity to deliver justice to incarcerated people who were sentenced under overly harsh mandatory minimums that the bipartisan First Step Act corrected," Vermont Sen. Peter Welch, who signed the letter, told Politico earlier this year. "President Biden should heed our call and use the power of executive clemency while he has it."
2 TIMES BIDEN SAID HE WOULD NOT PARDON SON HUNTER BIDEN
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is again earning support from lawmakers and others to be pardoned after years of legal woes over his publication of classified military documents leaked to him by a source in 2010.
A bipartisan effort spearheaded by representatives James McGovern, D-Mass., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., called on Biden last week to pardon Assange and "send a clear message" that his administration will not target journalistic activity.
REPS MCGOVERN, MASSIE URGE BIDEN TO PARDON JULIAN ASSANGE TO 'SEND A CLEAR MESSAGE' ON PRESS FREEDOM
"We write, first, to express our appreciation for your administration's decision last spring to facilitate a resolution of the criminal case against publisher Julian Assange and to withdraw the related extradition request that had been pending in the United Kingdom," the lawmakers wrote to Biden. "This brought an end to Mr. Assange's protracted detention and allowed him to reunite with his family and return to his home country of Australia."
Assange reached a deal with the U.S. Justice Department to end his imprisonment in the U.K. over charges related to publishing classified military documents. He had spent years in the U.K. to avoid extradition to the U.S.
BIDEN PARDONS SON HUNTER BIDEN AHEAD OF EXIT FROM OVAL OFFICE
He pleaded guilty in June to an Espionage Act charge of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified national defense information and was sentenced to time served. He returned to his native Australia after the plea deal.
"The terms of Mr. Assange's plea agreement have now set a precedent that greatly deepens our concern," the lawmakers’ letter to Biden said. "A review of prosecutions under the Espionage Act makes clear that Mr. Assange's case is the first time the Act has been deployed against a publisher.
"A pardon would remove the precedent set by the plea and send a clear message that the U.S. government under your leadership will not target or investigate journalists and media outlets simply for doing their jobs."
Biden’s pardoning of his son Sunday followed the president saying earlier this year he would not pardon his son before and after Hunter was found guilty in a June gun trial.
"I am not going to do anything," Biden said after Hunter was convicted in the gun case. "I will abide by the jury’s decision."
Hunter Biden was found guilty June 11 of lying about his drug use when buying a gun in 2018. He was found guilty on three charges — making a false statement in the purchase of a gun, making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federally licensed gun dealer and possession of a gun by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.
HUNTER BIDEN’S PARDON SETS TROUBLING PRECEDENT, RISKS POLITICIZING JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, CRITICS SAY
Hunter Biden had an extensive and well-documented history with addiction, which was best captured in his 2021 memoir "Beautiful Things," which walked readers through his spirals of crack cocaine use.
Hunter Biden faced another trial regarding three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor tax offenses over his alleged failure to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes in a California court in September. As jury selection was about to kick off in Los Angeles federal court, Hunter entered a surprise guilty plea.
When grilled by the media about Biden pardoning his son after saying he would not take such an action, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president will make other pardon announcements in the coming weeks but did not provide details.
"As it relates to pardoning or any clemency, the president, as you know, at the end of the year, makes announcements. He’s thinking through that process very thoroughly," Jean-Pierre said Monday.
"I’m not going to get ahead of — of the president on this. But you could expect more announcements, more … pardons and clemency at the end of … this term."
Fox News Digital's Landon Mion contributed to this report.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a lawsuit Thursday targeting the blue city of Dallas over a ballot measure that decriminalizes marijuana.
Paxton alleges that Proposition R, which "prohibits the Dallas Police Department from making arrests or issuing citations for marijuana possession or considering the odor of marijuana as probable cause for search or seizure," violates state law.
The attorney general argues in the lawsuit that the ballot measure is preempted by Texas law, which criminalizes the possession and distribution of marijuana. Paxton also claims the Texas Constitution prohibits municipalities from adopting an ordinance that conflicts with laws enacted by the state legislature.
MORE AMERICANS SMOKE MARIJUANA DAILY THAN DRINK ALCOHOL, STUDY CLAIMS
"Cities cannot pick and choose which State laws they follow," Paxton said in a statement. "The City of Dallas has no authority to override Texas drug laws or prohibit the police from enforcing them."
Paxton called the ballot measure "a backdoor attempt to violate the Texas Constitution" and threatened to sue any other city that "tries to constrain police in this fashion."
WHAT ARE THE TOP RISKS OF MARIJUANA USE?
The lawsuit comes after interim Dallas Police Department Chief Michael Igo directed Dallas police officers not to enforce marijuana laws against those found to be in possession of less than 4 ounces.
Ground Game Texas, a progressive nonprofit group that campaigned in favor of the ballot measure, argued it would help "keep people out of jail for marijuana possession," "reduce racially biased policing" and "save millions in public funding."
"It's unfortunate but not surprising that Attorney General Ken Paxton has apparently chosen to waste everyone's time and money by filing yet another baseless lawsuit against marijuana decriminalization," said Catina Voellinger, executive director for Ground Game Texas.
"Judges in Travis and Hays counties have already dismissed identical lawsuits filed there. The Dallas Freedom Act was overwhelmingly approved by 67% of voters — this is democracy in action."
Since January 2024, Paxton has filed lawsuits against five Texas cities that decriminalized marijuana possession, arguing these policies promote crime, drug abuse and violence.
Chet Sandhu is a former smuggler. He estimates that he trafficked over $50 million worth of illegal steroids. In the mid-1990s, Sandhu operated a steroid-trafficking network that sourced its supply from Karachi, Pakistan, and transported it via routes including the Netherlands, France, and Spain to the United Kingdom by bribing airport security. He was arrested during a smuggling run and sentenced to 4 ½ years in the Fontcalent correctional facility in Alicante, Spain, one of Europe's most infamous prisons.
Sandhu speaks with Business Insider about the underground anabolic-steroid market, explaining how testosterone and other performance-enhancing drugs make their way to street dealers, local gyms, and online platforms. He highlights the harsh prison sentences imposed in some countries and advocates for steroid use to be handled as a medical issue.
Since his release from prison, Sandhu has written two books, "From King of Karachi to Lockdown in the Costa Del Crime" and "Self-Made, Dues Paid." He now runs a CBD company.
Find more: https://chetsandhu.com/
