Noted TV Therapist Among Parents Suing Snapchat Over Their Children’s Fentanyl Overdose Deaths

Dr. Laura Berman, a relationship expert who hosts a show on the Oprah Winfrey Network, said she is on a mission to hold Snapchat responsible for the death of her 16-year-old son, who died after buying drugs laced with fentanyl over the social media platform.

Berman and her husband, Sam Chapman, are among 64 parents suing Snap, Snapchat’s parent company, for product liability following their children’s drug-related deaths.

“Our youngest son found Sammy in his room,” Berman told the New York Post of her son's death in 2021. “It was Super Bowl Sunday. The drug dealer connected with Sammy through Snapchat.”

She is also pursuing the passage of Sammy's Law, which would allow parents to be notified about “dangerous content" on their children's devices.

Berman and her husband said their son bought the drugs after befriending a dealer on a Snapchat feature known as Quick Add.

“The drug got delivered to our home as if it was a pizza. And Sammy died from fentanyl poisoning. He passed out and choked on his own vomit. The [quantity of fentanyl] was enough for an addict and too much for him," Chapman said.

They say Sammy met the drug dealer, who went by the handle Mr.Don248, promised "I deliver" on the platform. The account no longer exists.

“Letting [teenagers] on Snapchat is the equivalent of dropping them off in the worst part of the city,” Berman told the Post. “I’m talking about a neighborhood full of drug dealers, pimps, and rapists when [the teenagers] are too young to weigh the consequences of their actions.”

Berman and her husband said a geo-location function embedded in the Quick Add feature allows users to locate one another.

“Combine the Quick Add with geo-location and it allows drug dealers to friend you and find you. Sammy was sent a colorful menu of drugs and the drug that poisoned Sammy was delivered to our house," Chapman said.

Snap disputed that claim.

“Quick Add and its Snap Map features are not connected. And location sharing is turned off by default. Users only have the option to share their location with existing friends," the company told the Post in the statement.

A spokesperson for Snap, which will seek to have the lawsuit dismissed in Superior Court in Los Angeles next month, told the outlet that changes have already been made and protections have been bolstered to prevent contact with some individuals.

“We use cutting-edge technology to help us proactively find and eradicate drug content and accounts. We block search results for drug-related terms. And we work closely with experts to share patterns of drug dealers’ activities across other platforms," the spokesperson said, noting that the company has sympathy for “families who have suffered unimaginable losses."