Young teens getting access to drugs via social media

There are fears children as young as 14 are getting access to drugs through social media.A new investigation by Newstalk has found dozens of accounts advertising the sale of drugs like cocaine and cannabis.Within 10 minutes of setting up an Instagram and Snapchat account, Newstalk found close to 50 accounts advertising the sale of drugs.Some have thousands of followers and post menus of what they have available that day.Many dealers offer a pick up or delivery service – raising concerns about how easy it is for young people to access drugs.Brendan Cummins, a youth worker at Familibase in Ballyfermot, said it is quite easy to find the social media accounts.”There is a fair amount of advertising on social media. You can nearly search in your Facebook bar for a certain type of drug and it will come up in your feed,” said Mr Cummins.He said the days of meeting someone on a corner or someone selling from a particular spot is long gone.Mr Cummins said that when drugs and drug use are appearing so frequently on young people’s social media feeds it gives the impression that everyone is doing it. It kind of gets ingrained that it’s not as harmful,…
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