March 28, 2023

The Honorable Roger Marshall, M.D.
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

The Honorable Jeanne Shaheen
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

Dear Senator Marshall and Senator Shaheen:

On behalf of families, parents, sisters, brothers, and loved ones across the country, we write to you to share our support for the Cooper Davis Act. We have all lost our children due to drug traffickers selling counterfeit medicine or contaminated substances via social media platforms. We find common cause with other families, parents, and loved ones who have experienced similar loss to develop best practices for social media companies to prevent drug trafficking on their platforms. Social media has become a comfortable and accessible way for online drug traffickers to discover and sell to new customers and, every week, we hear more stories from parents whose children were killed by counterfeit drugs sold over social media. Cooper Davis is sadly just one more story to add to the long and ever-growing list of tragedies devastating our families and communities. We appreciate and thank you for your leadership in holding social media companies accountable for what takes place on their platforms.

Drug traffickers are taking advantage of every social media platform to target our children and expand their customer base by openly and shamelessly advertising illegal products and counterfeit pills containing illicit, deadly substances, like fentanyl and methamphetamines. The Partnership for Safe Medicines tracks deaths related to fake pills marketed through social media, and has found that social media marketed counterfeit medicine has resulted in deaths in at least twenty nine states. There are many more when you take into account ongoing investigations and sales of tainted controlled substances that resulted in fatalities.

Drug traffickers are peddling these fake pills with little to no consequences. On multiple occasions, we have reported drug dealers through the social media platform’s own reporting tools, only to be blatantly ignored, if not explicitly told these users are not violating the platform’s terms of services.

Social media platforms could act today to help prevent this dangerous trend. But rather than take measures to reduce or remove drug dealers and criminal networks for abusing their platforms, these companies refuse to do anything at all. Some even delay or ignore requests from law enforcement when investigating criminal activity occurring on their platforms. The Cooper Davis Act takes steps in the right direction in holding platforms accountable by requiring them to report all illicit drug activity occurring on their sites to law enforcement, empowering law enforcement to combat the breathtaking amount of fake fentanyl-laced pills flowing into and harming our families and communities. Ensuring social media companies proactively work with law enforcement to stop these drug dealers from operating on their platforms will help save the lives of children across the country.

We thank you for your leadership on this issue and your continued efforts to protect our families and children from illicit bad actors operating on these popular platforms. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us if we can be of any additional assistance in supporting this measure.

Sincerely,