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Devin Norring was 19 years old when he accidentally overdosed on a pill he purchased over Snapchat. He thought he was purchasing Percocet, but it was a pill laced with a deadly amount of fentanyl. 

Norring died in April 2020 just as the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning to upend people’s lives. For Norring, it meant his doctor’s appointments to treat migraines and dental issues were canceled. He turned to social media.

“We never thought this could happen to our family,” Devin’s mother, Bridgette Norring, said at a press conference Tuesday at Hastings High School. She was flanked by U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, both Democrats. 

“We had countless conversations with our kid about social media, their social media responsibility,” Norring said. “We had conversations about the drugs that are out there, but we didn’t know this drug was out there.”

Craig introduced the legislation with Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa in the U.S. House. The “Cooper Davis and Devin Norring Act” would require social media companies to alert federal law enforcement when illicit drug dealing occurs on their platforms. 

“Congress needs to take this into their own hands and force these tech platforms to get these drug dealers out of the hands of our young people,” Craig said.

The legislation would carry criminal and civil penalties. An initial violation would result in a fine up to $190,000. There are also steep civil penalties in the bill if a social media provider knowingly submits a report containing false or fraudulent information.

Republicans running against Craig for her competitive 2nd Congressional District seat have focused hard on immigration and border security concerns, noting that smuggling of drugs like fentanyl have caused problems far from the border. 

In turn, Craig has pointed to her support for additional border security and efforts to fund fentanyl scanners at crossings between Mexico and the United States.

Craig went further during her opening remarks Tuesday, calling for “more technology to detect the ingredients coming through the ports of entry at our southern border” and prosecuting “the distributors who are preying upon our young children.” 

Klobuchar, who is working on similar bipartisan legislation, noted the difficulty she and her colleagues have had in taking on technology companies and a federal law known as Section 230 that provides a powerful legal shield for internet companies. 

“We do not have the votes to get rid of Section 230 mostly because of [tech companies] lobbying,” Klobuchar said, noting that moving smaller in scope pieces of legislation dealing with “kids’ issues” is a way forward.

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U.S. Rep. Angie Craig and Sen. Amy Klobuchar are promoting a bill that would stop drug dealing to kids on social media sites like Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram. 

Clay Masters | MPR News

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Craig, Klobuchar seek support for legislation to crack down on fentanyl trafficking on social media

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