The DEA is warning parents of a serious threat: drug trafficking over social media. Your teen has access to illicit street drugs and counterfeit prescription pills in a way that previous generations of teens never did.
Drug dealers are no longer hiding out in shadowed backalleys, street corners, or “bad” neighborhoods.
Today, they hop onto social media and share a quick post. Drug deals happen over DMs, in comments, and via text message.
And you may not even know it is happening, even if you’re carefully monitoring your teen’s phone, text, and social media channels.
Are Teens Using Drug Emojis and Text Slang to Hide Drug Use?
Emojis, slang, and acronyms are often used to communicate the sale of drugs.
Your teen’s texts and chat conversations may look like Egyptian hieroglyphics to you, but you can decode the texts with a little help.
Here are some of the texting terms, acronyms, slang, and drug street names that you don’t want to see on your teen’s phone.
Suspicious Texting Terms
Texting has changed the way we use language, prioritizing short and concise conversations. You may use common texting acronyms yourself. From IDK (I don’t know) to OMW (on my way), BRB (be right back), or LOL (laugh out loud), abbreviated shortcode is commonplace on our phones.
However, it can feel nearly impossible to keep up with changing teen text terms and their meanings, especially if your teen is trying to hide conversations about drugs from you. Some of these acronyms on your teen’s phone could indicate they’re hiding information:
Acronym and Translation
- PIR = Parent in room
- 9 = Parent watching
- 99 = Parent gone
- 1174 = Party meeting place
- POS = Parent over shoulder
- CD9 = Parents around/Code 9
- DOC = Drug of choice
- KPC = Keeping parents clueless
- PAW = Parents are watching
Common Drug Slang Terms
Even in their DMs and via text, your teens are probably using slang terms when referencing drugs. These are some common slang terms your teen may be using:
- 420: Marijuana reference
- Cart: Cartridge for a vaporizer
- Dabbing: A way to inhale concentrated cannabis oil by dropping some on a hot surface and letting it vaporize
- Gas: Marijuana
- Hulk: A 2-mg generic benzodiazepine bar
- Pen: Vape for weed or tobacco; uses cartridges
- Plug: Dealer
- School bus: A 2-mg Xanax bar
- Special K: Ketamine
- Snow: Cocaine
- Yayo: Cocaine
- Zaza or za: Marijuana
Emoji Drug Code
Emojis allow us to quickly communicate an emotion, concept, or idea. From smiling faces to food to family icons, emojis have changed the way we communicate. Unfortunately for parents, these icons also provide a way for your teens to talk about drugs right under your nose. Unless you know what to look for, some of these emoji drug codes could look completely harmless. Or at least, utterly confusing.
While some emoji drug codes are easily decipherable, such as the pill icon or a blue circle that looks very much like a counterfeit blue prescription painkiller, others take a bit more knowledge to decode.
The Dangers of Drug Trafficking Over Social Media
Is all of this vigilance really necessary?
Preventing youth substance abuse, medication misuse, and experimentation has never been more critical.
Today’s teens face a threat that previous generations never faced: the dangers of fentanyl.
Fentanyl is cheap to produce and 50x - 100x more potent than morphine and heroin. Fentanyl — and the ingredients to manufacture it — are being shipped into the United States disguised as regular consumer goods. This powerful synthetic opioid is then diluted with other ingredients and pressed into counterfeit pills or mixed with illicit street drugs, like cocaine or heroin.
Fentanyl is flooding the streets and adulterating most drugs.
The DEA reports that 7 out of 10 counterfeit pills seized and tested contained potentially lethal amounts of fentanyl.
Teens may often experiment with prescription pills, mistakenly believing they are “safer” than street drugs. However, the pills your teen thinks they are buying off of social media or via text message could be fentanyl-laced fake pills being passed off as prescription.
For teens today, the first time they experiment with drugs could be the last time. Fentanyl is involved in the majority of overdose deaths.
For parents taking precautions to monitor social media, texts, and phone usage is just one way to help protect teens against an insidious threat. Talk to your teens about the dangers of experimenting with prescription pills or illicit street drugs. There is no such thing as safe experimentation.
