A GRIEVING mom has issued a warning following the death of her teen son who died alone in his room after buying a counterfeit pill on Snapchat that was laced with 10 lethal doses of fentanyl.
In August 2020, Luca Manuel from Redding, California – about two hours north of Sacramento – was just 13 years old when he took a pill that he thought was for pain relief.
Amanda FaithLuca Manuel, pictured with his mother Amanda Faith, died at the age of 13 in August 2020 from an accidental fentanyl overdose after taking a counterfeit pill[/caption]
Amanda FaithLuca’s mother spoke exclusively to The U.S. Sun about the dangers of fentanyl and how Snapchat is being used by dealers to target minors[/caption]
Speaking exclusively to The U.S. Sun, his mother Amanda Faith discussed how drug dealers use Snapchat to target teenagers, including her son.
“Luca obtained what he thought was a Percocet through a Snapchat dealer,” Amanda explained.
“Unfortunately, there was no Percocet in the tablet whatsoever only fentanyl and caffeine – It was enough to kill 10 men.”
The same day that he bought the pill, just a few weeks before his 14th birthday, Luca was found alone and unresponsive in his bedroom by his father.
Fentanyl is the leading cause of death for adults in the US between the ages of 18 to 45, according to the CDC.
An increasing number of parents are witnessing this tragedy with 1,500 children under the age of 20 dying from fentanyl in the US in 2021, four times as many as in 2018, according to Julie Gaither of the Yale School of Medicine.
According to the Drug Enforcement Agency, dealers are pressing drug-laced pills to make them look like safe prescription drugs.
“Youth are getting hammered from these fake pills,” Jon Epstein of fentanyl-awareness group Song for Charlie told People.
Last year, the DEA seized around 76.5 million fake pills laced with fentanyl, a huge increase from the 59.6 million pills seized in 2022.
These latest seizures contained enough fentanyl to kill over 380 million people with just 2 mg being potentially lethal, according to the DEA.
Faith said she was ignored as she tried to spread awareness of the dangers of fentanyl and Snapchat following her son’s death.
“They treated me like I was Chicken Little cackling about the sky falling,” she said.
“They couldn’t wrap their brains around that actually happening.
“It has a lot to do with the stigma of a drug overdose that’s why we’re pushing so hard to change the wordage to ‘poisoning’ because ‘overdose’ implies it is a known substance.
“It doesn’t make sense to call it an overdose in a case like Luca’s when he thought he was taking a pain medication, or for kids across the country who thought they were taking anti-anxiety medication.”
What is Fentanyl?
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid of which there are two types: Pharmaceutical Fentanyl and Illicitly Manufactured Fentanyl (IMF).
It is 100 times stronger than morphine and the pharmaceutical type is prescribed following surgery and advanced cancer.
IMF comes in multiple forms in the drug market and is commonly mixed with other drugs such as heroin.
It can also be made into pills that can look like other prescription medications, making them extremely dangerous.
Pills containing fentanyl are impossible to identify without test strips but even these can give false results.
According to the DEA, seizures of fentanyl pills in 2023 represent over 384 million doses with just 2 mg of fentanyl being a potentially deadly dose.
“Fentanyl is in everything here now,” the grieving mother warned.
Ryan Harrison of Redding was charged with first-degree murder 11 months after Luca died for selling him the deadly pill.
Harrison, who was 19 years old at the time, was sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in Luca’s death in September 2023.
He pleaded guilty to one count of voluntary manslaughter and two counts of possessing a controlled substance.
During the police investigation, it was alleged that Harrison had been using Snapchat to market and sell drugs to people, “many of whom were minors,” a police press release stated after his arrest in 2021.
Detectives found around 900 fentanyl pills at Harrison’s house along with codeine syrup, cocaine, and around $30,000 in cash.
He admitted to dealing the fentanyl pills that he marketed as Percocets and that he knew a small dose of fentanyl was enough to kill.
Fight For Justice
However, some parents of children killed by counterfeit pills are not lucky enough to see their child’s killer locked up.
Mahsa Jaeger, Founder of the Finale Foundation reached out to The U.S. Sun about the death of her daughter, Finale, in 2021, and “the grave failure in our system.”
“Finale purchased a pill through Snapchat, believing it to be safe, but it contained Fentanyl, leading to her instant death,” Jaeger said.
“Despite providing the police with substantial evidence and leads, the dealer involved was never investigated, highlighting a grave failure in our system.”
Faith revealed to The U.S. Sun that Snapchat was subpoenaed as part of Luca’s case and that Harrison’s Snapchat profile that sold the drugs to her son was allegedly “left up and running for 14 months.”
“During that time there were six more known poisonings related to that account,” the detective in her case later told her.
For two months after his arrest, Harrison allegedly allowed another user to access and control his account.
“He was allowing his friend to use it even after he had been incarcerated because it was profitable,” Faith said.
“Snapchat never deleted it. They had information that that man was selling fentanyl and caused a death.”
Amanda FaithThe pill that killed Luca contained enough fentanyl to kill 10 men and the investigation into his death ended with a seven-year sentence for Ryan Harrison, who supplied it[/caption]
Following Luca’s murder, Faith became an American Fentanyl Poisoning Awareness Advocate.
“He [the detective of the case] told me that they were investigating Luca’s death as a murder because no one would walk into the room of a 13-year-old little boy and say ‘just another addict,’” she said.
“That statement paired with three young men dying five months later across the street from my house is what made me an advocate.
“It wasn’t just sharing my son’s story, it was preventing more wreckage.”
Like Faith, Jaeger and numerous other parents who have experienced the same tragedy say they are not only spreading awareness of the drug but are also taking on Snapchat.
A lawsuit filed in Los Angeles in October 2022 against Snapchat’s parent company Snap Inc., alleges that the social media platform enables drug dealers to reach out and contact minors and young adults.
Over 60 parents whose children allegedly obtained fatal drugs via the app are part of the ongoing legal battle.
The lawsuit alleges that “the app’s unique features make it difficult for parents to police the content their children are viewing and simple for drug dealers to find young people online,” according to the Social Media Victims Law Center which is representing the families in the lawsuit.
“Through the use of Snap Map, which pinpoints a user’s geographical location, drug dealers have instant access to thousands of young people in their communities, allowing them to target potential customers,” it reads.
“As a result, drugs have become increasingly easy for kids to access, purchase, and have delivered straight to their front doors.”
GettyParents of children killed by counterfeit pills that were allegedly sold to them via Snapchat are taking the social media platform to court[/caption]
According to Faith, Harrison used the Snap map feature “to deliver the drugs directly to my son.”
The Social Media Victims Law Center encourages those who believe they may have a case for the lawsuit to apply for an evaluation.
In an update about the suit, The Social Media Victims Law Center website states: “On January 2nd, the Superior Court of Los Angeles ruled that lawsuits against Snapchat brought on by relatives of fentanyl victims will move forward.”
Snapchat argues that under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, it cannot be held liable for fentanyl deaths because it doesn’t attempt to moderate the content its users post.
The lawsuit hopes to change Section 230 to hold social media platforms accountable.
“We didn’t know really how dangerous encrypted apps are,” Faith explained after allowing Luca to download Snapchat to communicate with friends during the pandemic.
“They are incredibly dangerous. It was made to look innocuous and sweet and cute you know parents take the filtered pictures with their own children and I’m just like, ‘Oh my god you guys if only you really knew.’”
The U.S. Sun reached out to Snapchat for comment and was given the following statement by a spokesperson:
“The fentanyl epidemic has taken the lives of too many people and we have deep empathy for families who have suffered unimaginable losses.
“At Snap, we are working diligently to stop drug dealers from abusing our platform, and deploy technologies to proactively identify and shut down dealers, support law enforcement efforts to help bring dealers to justice, and educate our community and the general public about the dangers of fentanyl.”
In 2022, the social media platform worked with members of the Senate on The Cooper Davis Act working to “hold social media companies accountable for reporting to law enforcement all illicit fentanyl activity occurring on their platforms,” according to Doc Marshall, the U.S. Senator for Kansas.
Amanda FaithFaith teaches drug classes to warn of the dangers of pills and how to use Narcan, which reverses opioid overdose, to help those who have gotten themselves into trouble[/caption]
Amanda FaithFaith became an awareness advocate in order to ‘prevent more wreckage’[/caption]
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