(KIWA Staff Photo)Iowa (RI) — With school about to start, federal agents are urging Iowa parents to talk with their kids about the dangers of drugs, which are becoming far easier to access through smartphones.
Emily Murray, spokeswoman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Omaha Field Division, says drug experimentation can have lethal consequences. The agency is launching a video series called “Hidden on Your Kid’s Phone.”
One video features a father whose son died after swallowing a $10 pill he bought through an app. Murray says drug deals often begin on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok, then move to encrypted messaging apps such as WhatsApp or Signal, with payments made through Venmo, Zelle, or other cash-transfer apps. She says there are significant risks whenever anyone purchases drugs online.
An estimated 95% of American teenagers ages 13 to 17 have access to a smartphone. Murray says traffickers use social media to advertise deadly drugs through posts and disappearing stories, often relying on code words and emojis.
Murray says social media is another avenue drug dealers use to push counterfeit pills and other poisons to a new generation. Across the DEA’s five-state region — Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota — agents seized more than 67,000 fentanyl pills in the first seven months of 2026.
More information on the DEA’s initiative is available at Get Smart About Drugs.
