Q&A: Stop Online Sales of Illicit Fentanyl

Q: What is the Cooper Davis Act? 

A: Counterfeit pills laced with illicit fentanyl are driving overdose deaths among our youngest generations. In addition to better public awareness, law enforcement needs more tools. On behalf of Iowans, I’m working in the U.S. Senate to strengthen policies at the federal level to help save precious lives from overdose deaths. At a roundtable in Cedar Rapids in April, I led a discussion on the ties between organized retail crime and the illicit drug trade. Last October in Des Moines, I convened a hearing of the U.S. Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control and heard courageous testimony from Iowa families who have lost a loved one to fentanyl poisoning. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), drug overdose deaths killed more than 107,000 people in the United States in 2021 and more than 67 percent of those deaths involved synthetic opioids (primarily fentanyl), including 470 deaths in Iowa. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, fentanyl is produced in Mexico using raw materials from China. An official with Homeland Security Investigations at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security testified at both the roundtable and drug caucus hearing that Mexican crime rings are the principle pipeline of illicit fentanyl and methamphetamine that’s pumping into local communities. Testimony from Iowa parents called illicit fentanyl a “national emergency” and that America’s young adults are being deceived. The synthetic opioid is deadly in very small quantities, especially when users unknowingly ingest illicit fentanyl laced into counterfeit prescription pain medications. These heartbroken families want to stop drug dealers from selling pills online and stop the pills from coming across the U.S. border. Since the hearing last fall, I’ve added my support for a bipartisan bill introduced by Sens. Roger Marshall of Kansas and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire to hold social media companies accountable for illegal drug sales. The legislation is named after a teenager from Kansas, 16 year-old Cooper Davis, who died after taking half of a counterfeit prescription pain pill laced with fentanyl believed to have been purchased via a social media platform. The bill would require social media companies to report information to federal agencies relating to illicit online fentanyl on their platforms. Reporting requirements would help law enforcement root out and dismantle international crime networks and save lives. Big Tech platforms ought to bear some responsibility to protect young users on their platforms from being targeted by drug traffickers.

Q: Is there momentum in Congress for the bill to reach President Biden’s desk?

A: The bill mirrors legislation supported by President Biden when he served in the U.S. Senate that created reporting requirements for social media companies to combat online child sexual exploitation in the bipartisan PROTECT our Children Act of 2008. That law created a national network of 61 coordinated task forces to investigate and prosecute online crimes targeting kids, and provide guidance on victim support, prevention and community education. Last year, I supported updates to the 2008 federal law that passed the Senate. It makes common sense to expand reporting requirements to deter, catch and stop drug traffickers from peddling their poison to young people online. Our bill will be considered soon by the Senate Judiciary Committee. More than a dozen grassroots organizations and advocacy groups have lined up in support, including the National Fraternal Order of Police, writing: “Fatal overdoses and poisonings are growing fastest among 14-23 year olds. Investigations into these deaths have found that this deadly drug is accessed through social media platforms like Meta, Tik Tok and Snapchat. Currently, federal agencies do not have the reliable data on the presence of drug dealers on these platforms to intervene and prevent fentanyl’s availability.” Congress needs to act so that America’s law enforcement agencies have better tools to stop drug traffickers from targeting kids online. Broad support for this bill includes the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies, Association of Federal Narcotics Agents (AFNA), Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA), Mothers Against Prescription Drug Abuse (MAPDA), National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys, National HIDTA Directors Association, National Sheriffs’ Association, Snap, Inc., and Victims of Illicit Drugs (VOID). In addition to my efforts to close the digital window enabling drug dealers to target and market pills to young people, I’m also working to close a gap in federal law allowing xylazine to be mixed into drugs without hampering its legal use as a veterinary tranquilizer and I’m pushing the Biden administration to stop its open border policies giving the drug cartels free rein to flood America with illicit drugs fueling America’s overdose crisis.