Social media helps fentanyl dealers distribute deadly doses, parents warn

(NEXSTAR) – Erica and Peter Zurkow lost their 23-year-old son Henry to fentanyl poisoning after he bought a pill containing a lethal dose of the drug from a dealer on Craigslist in July 2022. Now, they are trying to prevent what happened to them from happening to another family.

“I want him to be remembered for his smile,” Peter said. “He had an electrifying smile.”

Henry excelled in sports like hockey and football and was an adventurous hiker. He was prescribed painkillers after suffering a hip injury, and in college he struggled with an addiction to Xanax.

“It’s unfathomable to us that he’s even gone,” Erica said. “We talk about him so much that it almost seems like he’s here until the reality hits that he isn’t.”

His parents said he went to a treatment center and got clean. In July 2022, his father found him draped over his desk at their home in Scarsdale, New York.

“The toxicology report called it fentanyl intoxication; we call it fentanyl murder. To us it was murder,” Peter said.

Henry’s parents said the night before he died, he was in pain from an old injury and had trouble sleeping. After his death, text messages on his phone revealed he was in communication with a dealer on Craigslist.

“We could read his texts, and he said, ‘is this legitimate?’” Erica said.

The Zurkows said technology has moved the sale of illicit drugs off street corners and onto social media. They feel social media platforms need to do more to monitor dealers using their sites to make sales.

“Social media has made the availability of contacts between a potential user or buyer and a dealer as easy as clicking,” Peter said.

The proliferation of drug trafficking on social media is so serious that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) sent out an alert about the emerging threat saying in part, “Criminal drug networks are abusing social media to expand their reach, create new markets and target new clients.”   The DEA also warns code words and emojis are used.

The Zurkows have turned their pain into purpose. What initially started as a Facebook post to relatives and friends, turned into an article for the Boston Globe.

“It was clear that Henry thought he was buying another drug, not something containing a lethal dose of the most powerful, non-natural opioid ever synthesized,” Peter wrote in the outlet.

It’s been over two years since Henry’s death. Peter and Erica speak out on harm reduction, as well as advocate for the opening of safe injection sites along with making test strips and the overdose reversing drug, Narcan, more readily available.

“If we can save or help other families not go through what we have gone through, that’s our motivation,” Erica said.

“We keep doing it in part because we try to find a way to talk about Henry every day. It keeps him alive for us,” Peter said.

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