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SOCIAL MEDIA REPORT

Best Practices To Rid Social Media Of Drug Trafficking

Drug traffickers use all of the tools and platforms of social media, from still images to video, with the same ease that others use them to post adorable kitten videos. Like any other kind of business, dealers use social media to recruit customers, advertise products, and drive sales.

We thought that social media companies wouldn’t stand for drug traffickers on their platforms killing our children—and dozens of others. Despite our pleas, and those of so many other victims’ families, and despite the subsequent promises of almost every major social media platform, organizations who track these deaths report that the problem is still growing.

However, platforms could act today. From our research with law enforcement, parent safety groups, and anti-child pornography advocates, we have identified concrete changes social media companies can implement now to thwart illicit drug sales.

COMMISSION MEMBERS

All employers are listed for identification purposes only. The organizations named do not endorse the Commission or its report.

  • Steven L. Filson, Chair
    ⁠City of San Bernardino Police Department (Ret.)
  • Jeanne Waggener
    ⁠Former Chair, National Association of Boards of Pharmacy;
    Former President, Texas State Board of Pharmacy
  • Amy Neville, Vice-Chair
    ⁠Founder, Alexander Neville Foundation
  • Ashley Thompson
    ⁠Parent Advocate
  • Shabbir Safdar
    ⁠Executive Director, Partnership for Safe Medicines
  • Daniel Salter
    ⁠Director, Atlanta-Carolina High Intensity Drug
  • Kathleen Miles
    ⁠Director of Analysis, Center on Illicit Networks and Organized Crime Trafficking Area

Jaime Puerta is a United States Marine Corps Veteran, and the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Puerta & Associates, Inc.; a small Interpreting business that specializes in furnishing Certified Interpreters to Attorneys, Doctors, and Courts working within the Workman’s Compensation field in the State of California. He resides in Santa Clarita, California, with his wife Claudia. Jaime is also the President of V.O.I.D., "Victims Of Illicit Drugs", a California 501C non-profit dedicated to educating parents and children about the dangers of illicit drug use, and also about the dangers that abound on social media platforms. Jaime also sits on the Advisory Board of A.C.C.O. "The Alliance To Counter Crime Online". Jaime became involved in the fight against Fentanyl when his only son Daniel passed away due to Fentanyl Poisoning on April 6, 2020.

Jaime is an avid Harley Davidson enthusiast and rides his motorcycles whenever time permits him to do so.

Steve Filson was raised in Huntington Beach and has been a resident of San Bernardino since 1976 when he relocated there after his service in the U.S. Air Force. He retired in 2009 after a 31-year career with the San Bernardino County Sheriff and San Bernardino Police Department. Steve is the owner of a private security company and is a staff member of the Public Safety Academy, a public charter school in San Bernardino.|

Most importantly, Steve is Jessica’s Dad. Jessica was his 29-year-old daughter killed in Redlands on January 22, 2022, along with her boyfriend, Nicholas, due to fentanyl poisoning. Steve lives in Highland, California, with his wife, Cheri, and their five-year-old granddaughter, Elara. He and other bereaved parents formed V.O.I.D., “Victims of Illicit Drugs,” as a California non-profit corporation and dedicate their efforts to education and awareness of this fentanyl scourge confronting our society.