Parents in Mississippi Push for Change After Son Killed by Fake Pill Sold on Snapchat

Two parents in Mississippi have joined the chorus of others across the country warning that one pill can kill and are asking lawmakers to help. According to WTOK-TV, Sam and April Brown lost their son, Sam, Jr., in September 2020 to a fake pill containing fentanyl. Sam, Jr. purchased the counterfeit Percocet pill that killed him from a dealer on Snapchat. Sam, Jr. was just 19-years-old.

The Partnership for Safe Medicines (PSM) has been tracking the fentanyl pill crisis since 2015 and specifically the issue of counterfeit prescription pills being sold on various social media platforms since 2020. While bad actors will abuse any loopholes they can find, it is Snapchat’s young demographic base that makes these deaths so shocking. 

Today Mississippi joins 14 other states in which PSM has found confirmed reports of deaths from pills sold on Snapchat, with seven additional states and Washington, D.C. having issued warnings.