Key Facts and Figures

• As a result of pressure from the US Drug Enforcement Administration and US Food and Drug Administration, Facebook and Instagram recently began publishing data on their enforcement of drug sales on their platforms.

• In the last six months of 2019, Facebook claimed to “action” (i.e., flag, not necessarily remove) 16.7 million drug postings. Instagram reported actioning 1.3 million pieces of drug content in Q4 2019 and Q1 2020.

• According to the National Institutes of Health, a full 75% of British teenagers say they have seen drugs for sale on Instagram.

• A study in the U.K. by the advocacy group Volteface found that of the teens who reported seeing drugs for sale on social media, 56% saw them being advertised on Snapchat, 55% on Instagram and 47% on Facebook.

• The public and private economic costs associated with the opioid epidemic are staggering—more than $1 trillion from 2001-2017 plus an estimated $500 billion by the end of 2020.