FRESH PREY FOR DRUG DEALERS..
Students targeted using social media
STUDENTS across the UK are being targeted by drug dealers who use social media to peddle their deadly wares, a Mirror probe reveals.
Instagram and Snapchat are used to contact university first years within days of their arrival at halls of residence.
They are invited to “direct message” to find a catalogue of the drugs on offer.
Our findings come after three students died this week in Newcastle.
Jeni Larmour, of Newtownhamilton, Co Armagh, Northern Ireland, lost her life in a suspected ketamine tragedy along with another 18-year-old girl at the city’s university. A Northumbria University student, 21, also died after he had apparently taken MDMA.
Freshers received cards from dealers slipped under their doors within days of arrival this week. At Newcastle University, some were urged to buy “brainblasters”, with instructions to discard the cards if they were not interested.
A former University of Liverpool student told of the “astonishingly casual” way a drug dealer weaved himself into daily life in her halls in the city.
The problem is widespread across the UK. Instagram confirmed it had removed 1.4 million pieces of drug sales content between April and June.
Facebook, which owns Instagram and WhatsApp, said it was committed to working with law enforcement and youth organisations to ensure that drug sales were removed.
The ex- Liverpool student, 22, described how a dealer introduced himself in her first year, handing out t his business cards like a salesman.
“He came and introduced himself f to us, explained he could get anything g we wanted and handed out his s contact details and added anyone
who was interested on Snapchat. He was very friendly, older than us but not by much. After that he became part of the daily life of the halls. He had an office job but that only provided half his income.
“He specialised in ketamine and MDMA, the two illegal drugs identified in the deaths of four young people in the North East last weekend.”
Dealers use the social media favoured by all students, with deals done by text, Whatsapp and Snapchat. p Professor
NORTHUMBRIA Student, 21, died after taking MDMA
LIVERPOOL Dealer hung around student halls
Fiona Measham, chair in criminology at the University of Liverpool, co-founded The Loop, a harm reduction charity.
She said: “Nightclubs are a semi-safe space, they have registered door staff, the bigger clubs often have paramedics, chillout spaces. If you don’t have nightclubs open, you lose that safety net.”
One Northumbria University student, 21, told the Mirror how first years were desperate to meet people, and were meeting in their rooms after 10pm.
Another, 21, added: “It is party c central. Dealers are putting fentanyl i in pills which is 100 times more p potent than morphine. That is the d danger of these people, they do not c care what they sell. I cannot believe t three students have lost their lives at s such a young age. It is so tragic.”
Snapchat was approached for a comment before publication.