X Launches Prevent Alliance to Combat Synthetic Drug Abuse

X is taking another step in combating the promotion of illegal substances in the app, by signing up to the Prevent Alliance, which aims to establish more definitive rules and approaches to combat synthetic drug promotion within social apps.

Today we are joining with cross-sector partners to launch the Prevent Alliance, a global initiative focused on preventing the abuse of digital platforms to distribute synthetic drugs and raising awareness about dangers of synthetic drug misuse.

At @X, we recognize the challenges…

— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) July 11, 2024
Synthetic drugs aim to replicate the effects of more commonly known illicit substances, like cocaine, marijuana and LSD. Arguably, the most notorious synthetic drug is fentanyl, though there are many other dangerous variations of synthetic substances that have now established a market among drug users around the world.

And they can cause serious harm. Research shows that the repeated use of synthetics can cause “long term or irreversible damage to dopaminergic, adrenergic and serotonergic pathways in the brain.”

The more potent mixes can also lead to more serious side effects and harms. As per the CDC, synthetic opioids are now the primary driver of overdose deaths in the United States.

As such, it’s important for X, and indeed all social platforms to crack down on the promotion of synthetics, and this new initiative will ideally help to establish more detection and prevention processes among social apps.

Though, at the same time, X owner Elon Musk himself takes ketamine, a synthetic substance, and his high profile endorsement of this, and other synthetics, could run counter to the aims of this project.

Probably best to view the two in isolation (and Musk, it’s worth noting, uses ketamine in a prescribed capacity), though with Elon’s celebrity, and his desire for attention, that’s increasingly difficult.