Twitter and Instagram under fire over adverts for deadly fake Xanax
Brazen drug dealers sell Xanax pills on social media
SOCIAL media giants Twitter and Instagram were yesterday accused of ‘playing with people’s lives’ for continuing to host pages advertising deadly counterfeit Xanax.
Children and teenagers are being targeted online by dealers purporting to sell the antianxiety drug which has been glamorised in American rap music.
But many are actually peddling ‘homemade’ substances using raw materials bought in from countries such as China.
The British arm of the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which supplies Xanax in the US where it is routinely prescribed, said boric acid, floor polish, rat poison, pesticides and lead paint have been found in counterfeit pills.
Xanax is not prescribed on the NHS but can be obtained in the UK on a private prescription. Increasingly, young people are taking it with alcohol to relax at parties or are self-medicating with it ahead of exams.
But side-effects can include memory loss and breathing difficulties. The drug – a Class C controlled substance from the benzodiazepine family – also causes withdrawal symptoms which can include depression and suicidal thoughts.
Labour MP Bambos Charalambous called on the Government to clamp down on social media pages selling Xanax. Yesterday it emerged Twitter failed to remove any of 16 posts and pages advertising Xanax when they were flagged as inappropriate by the BBC recently. Instagram removed seven of ten posts within two weeks but left one online until approached for a comment.
Mr Charalambous said social media giants have to be more proactive. His comments came after the Daily Mail found Instagram pages within seconds yesterday that promised to sell the drug to buyers in Britain. A Twitter account found by the Mail also included links to a website which purported to sell cocaine and heroin alongside Xanax.
Mr Charalambous said: ‘If something is reported on social media then it needs to be looked at immediately. They can’t wait two weeks or even one.
‘We could be playing with people’s lives. A lot of these drugs are not pure which makes them even more dangerous. If they continue to be sold then somebody could die.’
Instagram yesterday removed two accounts selling Xanax when they were flagged by the Mail. Instagram said: ‘As soon as we are made aware of violating content we work quickly to remove it.’
Twitter said content that violates its rules ‘will be actioned by our dedicated support teams’. It added that users could block key words – such as Xanax – so the content is not displayed.
The Mail revealed earlier this month that pharmacy-grade Xanax was being openly sold on social media. It followed a Mail investigation reporting how rogue pharmacists and wholesalers were exploiting the growing market for Xanax by selling the drug on to street dealers.