Are kids using emojis to talk about drugs?
Children and young adults across the country increasingly are dying from drug overdoses, sometimes from seemingly innocuous pills bought through social media platforms, and parents are warning against the temptation to think, “Not my kid.”
“Please educate yourself, your children, your families and your friends,” said Mary Palmer, the mother of Ian Mackay, whose photo appeared on a billboard as an example of a boy who died from taking an unsuspected counterfeit pill laced with lethal fentanyl.
The internet has become a superstore black market for drugs and fake prescription medications sought by kids and adults, and dealers use myriad coded emojis and slang to circumvent scrutiny, said William Kimbell, assistant special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Houston.
“That’s why we encourage parents to really take a look at what their kids are doing and understand what they need to know” about these coded languages and transactions, Kimbell said.
Based on DEA information and other sources, Hearst Newspapers created this guide to help parents identify emoji codes and slang employed in the black market for drugs, and how the transactions work.
How it works
The drug-selling game over the internet is a two-way street where consumers can look for specific drugs, but people also can be unintentionally exposed to dealers.
“It’s a very aggressive marketing,” said Timothy Mackey, CEO of S-3 Research, a big-data startup funded by the National Institutes of Health. It’s focused on machine-learning algorithms to scan and decode drug-dealing language employed on social media.
Anyone looking on social media platforms for hashtags that include the names of drugs or associated slang and codes will eventually find a dealer, said Mackey. But dealers use intrusive marketing strategies, such as inserting selling pitches and emojis on forums and comments sections on internet platforms. Examples are comments where people complain about their struggles with opioids or need for medications, or Youtube videos about related topics.
Typically, buyers and sellers connect on social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Tiktok or Twitter. They move then to direct messaging applications with encrypted communications such as Whatsapp, Telegram, Signal and Wickr Me.
Kimbell said drug dealers have turned cellphones into a one-stop shop for this trafficking business, including payments made with instant, oneclick apps such as Venmo, Cashapp, Remitly and Zelle.
The emoji code
The DEA has identified emojis that are frequently used in the drug black market, but parents should pay attention to the context, as they are employed generally in combination with slang, hashtags or comments such as expressing desired moods.
Some emojis are universal for drug dealing, such as in the case of a maple leaf. Emoticons with dollar signs, a crown or a male electrical plug are common adverting emoticons for dealers.
Emojis portraying rockets, bombs or explosions signal high-potency drugs or good batches.
Some emojis have become popular in this business because their image may be somehow related to specific drugs. An example is the use of emojis portraying snow to convey cocaine because one of the street names for this drug is “snow.” Green vegetables are associated with marijuana, a train emoji with amphetamines (or “speed”) and candy with MDMA, as the product resembles candies. Some emojis, such as a banana for some opioids, may suggest “going bananas” or “slipping” in and out of consciousness. But such correlations are not always obvious.
Opioids: Prescription pills containing opioids are the culprit of the opioid epidemic. Last year alone, more than 100,000 people died from overdosing, the majority of these on narcotics including heroin and fentanyl. A kid looking to “experiment” with a prescription pill can instead easily get look-alike fake tablets sold by the millions in U.S. markets. Other pills: Popular prescription medications among teens and adults are antidepressants, or “downers,” with Xanax among the favorites. On the other side of the mood-seeking spectrum are stimulants containing amphetamines, such as Adderall.
Just like with opioid medications, these prescription drugs sold illegally on the black market can be fake. According to DEA, 40 percent of counterfeit pills sold in U.S. markets are laced with strong drugs such as fentanyl, a synthetic opioid up to 10 times more potent than morphine.
Recreational drugs: Health statistics show that the fatal overdose rate has consistently grown among 15- to 24-year-olds during the last decade. So-called recreational drugs also have become what experts call a Russian roulette, as they are also appearing in batches analyzed by DEA that are mixed with other strong drugs. Psychoactive substances
such as synthetic marijuana, or fake weed, have been linked to serious overdose events and deaths.
‘The whites’: Batman, Charlie, Christina and Scooby are not necessarily your teen’s friends’ nicknames. Just like a cute snowman emoji, they may be hiding something as grim as a heavy drug.
Proactive parenting
The U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration recommends that parents should have conversations with their children, with five principal goals:
1. To let them know that the parents disapprove of underage drinking and unprescribed drug consumption. Surveys have shown that the majority of minors see their parents as their leading influencers on this topic.
2. To reinforce that the parents care for their health and success and how drugs can affect those objectives.
3. To show that informed parents, rather than friends, can be a good source to talk to about their drug concerns.
4. To show that the parents are paying attention to their behaviors because they care. Children are more likely to engage in unwanted behavior if they think no one will notice.
5. To build a teen’s skills and strategies to avoid making bad choices in difficult situations.
The agency has a mobile app called “Talk, They Hear You” to help parents.
Monitoring?
Whether parents should monitor their children’s internet usage is debatable. Some parents and experts suggest that children should be trusted to make good choices on their own. Others emphasize parental responsibility for their minors’ safety and recommend transparency on rules and supervision.
Besides social media interactions, financial transactions made with phone applications could provide a good inside view about potential drug dealing. Kimbell recommends looking for regular unexplained payments to the same user made with person-to-person payment apps, such as Cashapp or Venmo.