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Drug peddlers have found a new place to hawk wares and scout for teenage victims – social networking site Facebook. Cops in the UK will wake up and take notice, after a UK paper exposed the racket
One of the most popular social networking sites and the favourite among teens around the world, Facebook is perhaps not as safe as parents believe it to be. The website seems to have emerged as the latest haunt of drug dealers scouting for potential victims or ‘clients’.

According to a News of the world report, drug dealer gangs have set up special groups aimed at encouraging members to start smoking mind–bending ‘Skunk’ cannabis.

“I love weed and weed loves me!,” boasts one Ben Norman. “Add me (to Facebook friends list) and let’s all get high!“

The above message, the report informs, was one of the many discovered on a shadowy group page labelled ‘Smoke Weed Everyday’ which openly promotes the potentially dangerous drug with pictures of vacant–eyed skunk users out of their heads bragging about how great it made them feel.

Another group called ‘Can Anyone Get Me Some Damn Weed’ goes to more sinister levels–helping junkies contact dealers in their area. When a News of the World reporter joined one such group, she was in no time hooked up with a pair of online peddlers. The reporter who joined Facebook, using a fake name Carly Hall, was soon swapping messages with Jed Watt (17), a supplier who had brazenly posted his his mobile number on the site– he laughed out loud as he told how he had received “Loads” of calls from drug users.

Through these groups, the members can not only get information on the where and how of scoring drugs but some dealers even arranged the whole ‘Transaction’, as the reporter herself found out during her undercover stint. She managed to lay her hands on £30 worth of cannabis through the first supplier Watt and another £40 worth of ‘skunk’ through another Facebook peddler.

Facebook–which has 150 million users worldwide–insists it shuts down pages that promote or involve illegal activity. “Indeed, since we started our investigation several of the groups we posted on have been removed” states the report.

A spokeswoman for the site is quoted in the report as having said, “People who use Facebook to co–ordinate illegal activities are fools. We will work proactively to share information that aids in the prosecution of people orchestrating illegal activities off of Facebook”

A spokeswoman for Essex Police said, “We are grateful to the News of the World for bringing this to our attention.”


Source: Pune Mirror