social media and drugs Archives

Why Slang Matters in Social Media Investigations

Social Media users, especially younger generations, often use slang to communicate. You may have heard a phrase or two from a Gen Zer that made you pause and wonder what they meant by that! One that I hear a lot in my personal life is “spill the tea” ~ which means “tell me the gossip.” Innocent enough, but when conducting a social media deep dive on a person of interest, it is critical to educate yourself. Without knowledge of these terms, investigators might miss crucial details.

Identifying Drug Activity

Recently the publication, WIRED covered the subject of drug sales and drug use in social media. More and more dealers and consumers are using a combination of emoji’s and slang as a way to communicate. This has morphed into getting the delivery of your drugs via the USPS, rather than meeting the dealer on a street corner or in the dark web. Some dealers have even sponsored social media posts to gain more traffic. “Dealers ran hundreds of paid advertisements on Meta platforms in 2024 to sell illegal opioids and what appeared to be cocaine and ecstasy pills, according to a report this year by the Tech Transparency Project, and federal prosecutors are investigating Meta over the issue”.

Staying educated is one way to stay ahead of this. Here are some examples of the new terms used in social media along with their meanings:

Common Slang Terms Used by Drug Dealers:

Plug: Refers to a supplier or someone who can provide drugs.
Connect: Another term for a supplier or source for drugs.
Re-up: The act of replenishing a drug supply.
Slab: A large quantity of drugs, often sold in bulk.
Cut: Additives used to dilute or enhance drugs.
Cook-up: The process of preparing drugs, particularly in creating unique combinations.

*Resource: Higher Language

Gen Z Slang

Generation Z (Gen Z) generally includes individuals born between 1997 and 2012, according to the Pew Research Center. However, some sources may slightly adjust these dates, with ranges often extending from 1995 to 2010 or similar variations.
As of 2025, Gen Zers are approximately 13 to 28 years old.

Generation Z has developed a vibrant wordlist of slang terms that are widely used across social media platforms. Here are some of the most popular expressions:

Rizz: Derived from “charisma,” this term refers to someone’s ability to attract or charm others, especially in a romantic context.
Delulu: A playful abbreviation of “delusional,” used to describe someone who has unrealistic fantasies, particularly about relationships or personal aspirations.
The ick: A sudden feeling of discomfort or repulsion towards a person, often triggered by a specific behavior or trait.
Bussin’: Used to describe something exceptionally good or delicious, commonly in reference to food.
Mid: A term signifying that something is mediocre or average in quality.
Simp: Describes someone who is overly attentive or submissive to another person, often in a romantic context, without reciprocation.
No cap: A phrase used to assert that someone is telling the truth or being genuine.
Cheugy: Refers to something that is outdated or no longer trendy.

Glow up: Describes a significant transformation, often in appearance or style, indicating improvement.
Stan: A blend of ‘stalker’ and ‘fan,’ it denotes someone who is an enthusiastic and devoted admirer of a celebrity or public figure.
Ghosting: The act of suddenly cutting off all communication with someone without explanation, typically in a dating context.
Salty: Feeling upset or bitter, often in response to a perceived slight or disappointment.
Bet: A term used to express agreement or affirmation, similar to saying “okay” or “sure.”
Fam: Short for “family,” but often used to refer to close friends or a trusted group.
Sheesh: An exclamation used to express disbelief, admiration, or exasperation.
Resource: Parade

Illegal Drug Sales & Social Media

Social Media companies are still being challenged for not doing enough when it comes to selling drugs on their platforms. Snap Chat, Instagram, Tik Tok and others have been sited for not doing enough to curb illegal drug sales on their sites. Parents, in particular, are passionate about this issue. With the rise of Fentanyl, the online sales of fake pills that include the synthetic opioid is staggering. The dealers use social media to advertise to young people. So even if a young person isn’t interested in mining social media for a drug of choice, the dealers come to them.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issued a warning back in September 2021, warning about the increase. Anne Milgram, the DEA Administrator, called out two apps that were very popular with teens and young adults: Snapchat and TikTok. She was quoted in the Washington Post that they were not doing enough to combat sales. But will the request go unnoticed?

This has been occurring for years on several social platforms. Many of the platform executives have said they are doing all they can on their end. Companies have hired extra moderators, using artificial – intelligence algorithms to flag unwanted posts. To date it continues to be an issue as many young people are dying from this type of drug.

To date, more than 93,000 people died of drug overdoses in the US in 2020. This is an increase of 30% from 2019.
CDC

The Advertising of Illegal Drugs to teens and young adults.

The Organization for Social Media Safety, ran an informal test and found they were able to connect with drug dealers on multiple social media sites in under three minutes.

Volteface commissioned Survation in January 2019 to conduct a nationally representative poll of 2,006, 16 to 24 year olds. The research was conducted on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. Fake profiles were set up and researchers did not communicate with any social media users. Key findings were as followed:

One in four young people (24%) reported they see illicit drugs advertised for sale on social media.
Of those who reported seeing illicit drugs for sale on social media:

56% saw drugs being advertised on Snapchat, 55% on Instagram and 47% on Facebook.

63% saw Cannabis being advertised – making it the most seen drug advertised for sale. Cocaine was the second drug most seen advertised (26%), followed by MDMA/Ecstasy (24%), Xanax (20%), Nitrous Oxide (17%) and Codeine/Lean (16%).

Encryption and VPN technology makes it difficult to trace dealers. There is also a lack of information sharing between police and social media platforms. All of this makes it very hard to get this off social media.

Searching for Drugs Online: (American Addiction Centers: Drug Abuse.com )

Think it is hard to find illegal drugs in social media? You might be very surprised to discover that people are selling drugs in the most blatant fashion. In fact, even their user names make it obvious! With user names like “ihavedrugs4sale”, and drug-riddled posts/pictures, the dealers make it quite obvious. The study revealed that the most popular items included marijuana, prescription drugs, painkillers, xanax, molly (mdma) and lean (codeine syrup mixture). Example below of items found in social media:

This year a Santa Monica teen, named Sammy Berman Chapman asked his dad for a cheeseburger and went to his bedroom. An hour later his mother found him dead on the floor.

Sammy was killed by a Xanax pill laced with fentanyl, which is a synthetic opioid 50 times as powerful as heroin. The culprit: a drug dealer on Snapchat and, from the parents’ perspective, the company Snap itself, which they said was not doing enough to protect young users like Sammy. They went to the company for answers on how this could happen. Snapchat’s rep stated:

“Continuing to significantly improve our operational work to eradicate drug dealers from Snapchat, along with raising awareness of the dangers of fentanyl and other illicit drugs, will be a long term effort for us — we will keep working to do better and help keep our community safe,” said a Snapchat spokesperson.

It is an uphill battle, but one that is worth fighting for.

2021 Social Media Predictions

Social Media exploded this year. In July, the number of social media users reached 4.57 billion (which equates to half the population), as predicted by Hootsuite and We Are Social, with 346 million new users joining in the 12 months prior.
Social Media continues to evolve and we are here to take a look at what is to come and what you need to keep track of as we move into 2021.

Facebook

Algorithm Changes Has Facebook fueled the political fire? The answer is yes, and they are making changes through their algorithm feed to diffuse it. Their goal is to reduce extremist group content and move towards neutral grounds. Mainstream media will take the lead through newsfeeds rather than smaller political groups. With specific algorithm changes as this, broad effects could create additional changes to other aspects of Facebook. This is something to be mindful of for open source intelligence purposes and online searches.
Click Here for a more in depth look.

Live Videos
Tom Jarvis, Wilderness Agency:“The pandemic has accelerated our need to share in real-time through live video, with Facebook reporting a 50% increase in viewers watching live videos in March compared with the month previously. With a vaccine in sight and “normal life” returning in some form soon, we will see a huge increase in us all sharing our real-world experiences in real-time.”

Instagram

Stories
Stories came out in 2016 with short video sequences that disappear within a 24 hour period. In 2020 Stories began loosing it’s popularity as Reels took off. According to Social Media Examiner, it’s gained in popularity 10 times the number of views for stories or normal posts.
Reels
Instagram recently changed it’s formatting, offering a small video button at the very bottom of the screen. Reels is sometimes compared to TikTok as it was launched to compete with the app. We will see this feature gradually shift the direction of Instagram. We could potentially see Reels lead our IG newsfeed instead of posts.
Click Here for more a more in depth look at Instagram changes.

TikTok

Social Media is Constantly Changing.
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Selling Drugs in Social Media

With all of the troubling events in our world today, social media seems to be more focused on the Election, COVID-19, Protests and Riots. Not much attention is given these days to selling drugs in social media. However, it is still happening and many police departments are having a hard time keeping up.

Salt Lake City news outlet, (KUTV) actually reported that if your child is on Snapchat, there’s a good chance they are seeing ads from drug dealers. Several 8th grader’s say they see the ads almost daily.

“Like yesterday, this person added me and they were selling Xanax,” said the eighth-grader.
Drug dealers are called “plugs” on social media, sometimes using a plug emoji to describe them.
Some plugs “quick add” people on Snapchat, which categorizes users by zip code.
(reported by KUTV Salt Lake City)

The Dealers Don’t Hide

Just a week ago, we performed a search on a suspect for a client. While combing through the suspect’s social media posts, it became quite obvious she was dealing. She made no secret of it and actually announced she was ready to make a run, and asked if anyone needed anything. Of course, her Facebook page didn’t reveal her real name. She used an alias but we were able to tie it to her name due to many public photos she included of herself. It is not always as secretive as one might think.

Instagram’s Selling of Drugs

A quick search for “#Zannies (a Xanax slang) provided over 4,000 results. They don’t hide it either. The photo below is just one example of what is out there.

Drugs and social media just seem to go hand in hand. In a post we wrote over a year ago, titled, “Buying Drugs on Instagram: It’s easier than you think”, we outlined why this is so easy to get away with.

The problem is Instagram’s algorithms can’t distinguish the context the hashtags are used in. And if a user then follows a dealer using the hashtags, Instagram’s algorithms then suggest that user follow more drug dealers. In the course of one day over 50 Instagram dealer accounts were found simply be searching for different hashtags like #weed4sale.

Most dealer profiles have a bunch or “product” photos displaying their inventory and their contact information is in the bio or comments section. While some bravely post their mobile number, most use a messaging app called Kik and others. No phone numbers or personal info is exchanged here, only user to user messaging.

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Do You Speak Emoji?

Emojis are now a part of our culture and are being used as a way to communicate everything from emotions to soliciting drugs. Marketers are going as far as to mine emojis in social media the same way they mine data; to determine the emotion behind a brand. Some speculate it will morph into a language in and of itself. This is certainly true among criminals and drug dealers as we have seen first hand in our social media investigations. As we dig deeper into this subject, it is important to establish some baseline knowledge.

Let’s start with some history.

The most current statistics I have found on Emojis shows that there are now 2,623 official unicode emojis. Each day 5 BILLION emojis are used in Facebook Messenger alone and 60 million are used daily in Facebook.

Emojis were first used in Japan (the country where it originated) somewhere around 1997. In 1999 Shigetaka Kurita created the first widely-used set of emoji.

Emoji usage in marketing messages has rapidly increased at an annual growth rate of over 775 percent.

Can Emojis Be Used In Court?

We will be hearing much more on this subject, no doubt. Currently, this has been looked at by several law professors as well as attorneys and law enforcement. What if emojis have multiple meanings? How can one be sure it was meant for criminal purposes?

Between 2004 and 2019, there was an exponential rise in emoji and emoticon references in US court opinions, with over 30 percent of all cases appearing in 2018, according to Santa Clara University law professor Eric Goldman, who has been tracking all of the references to “emoji” and “emoticon” that show up in US court opinions. So far, the emoji and emoticons have rarely been important enough to sway the direction of a case, but as they become more common, the ambiguity in how emoji are displayed and what we interpret emoji to mean could become a larger issue for courts to contend with.

Still, it’s rare for cases to turn on the interpretations of emoji. “They show up as evidence, the courts have to acknowledge their existence, but often they’re immaterial,” Goldman says. “That’s why many judges decide to say ‘emoji omitted’ because they don’t think it’s relevant to the case at all.” But emoji are a critical part of communication, and in cases where transcripts of online communication are being read to the jury, they need to be characterized as well instead of being skipped over. “You could imagine if you got a winky face following the text sentence, you’re going to read that sentence very differently than without the winky face,” he says.
The Verge: Emoji are showing up in court cases exponentially, and courts aren’t prepared

For now Emojis can be used by investigators through investigative consultants and software platforms as a “tip” that there may be something illegal going on. Like anything in social media, it is a piece of a larger puzzle, but one in which needs to be understood.