We are running out of time honestly.”

Rep. Angie Craig

The Cooper Davis and Devin Norring Act has been gaining support in congress.

On Tuesday, July 2 Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Rep. Angie Craig visited Hastings High School to speak about the Cooper Davis and Devin Norring Act, a bill that would require social media platforms to report the sale of illicit drugs like Fentanyl to law enforcement and establishes civil and criminal penalties for not doing so.
“You can’t fix this without fixing social media,” said Klobuchar at the event.
The bipartisan bill is named for two victims of Fentanyl overdoses. Cooper Davis, a 16-year-old from Shawnee, Kan. died of a Fentanyl overdose after taking half of a pill bought on Snapchat that he thought was Percocet in August 2021. Devin Norring, a 19-year-old senior at Hastings High School, died after taking a pill thought also to be Percocet that was bought on Snapchat for a migraine and toothache. Norring died of a Fentanyl overdose April 4, 2020.
The Cooper Davis and Devin Norring Act has been gaining support in congress.
“We have whittled away at objectors. It’s pretty embarrassing to be opposed to this bill,” said Klobuchar. Despite that momentum, the bill’s future is still uncertain. There is still some discussion as to whether or not it will be wrapped up with a similar bill targeting pornography on social media currently in the congress or if it will be passed alone.
“We are running out of time honestly,” said Craig.
Social media has changed the landscape of buying illicit drugs providing access and reach across communities. It’s the “primary platform kids purchase all kinds of drugs,” said Bridgette Norring, mother of Devin Norring. Bridgette Norring has become an activist for social media reform after the death of her son in 2020. She has spoken both to congress and tech companies seeking better accountability for the sale of drugs on social media. Snapchat in particular, the platform on which both Devin and Cooper purchased the pills that killed them, has become a target.
“Snap has chosen revenue over safety features,” said Norring.
In the aftermath of Devin Norring’s death in 2020, Hastings Police were able to locate and charge the dealer that sold to Devin. That investigation led to 19 federal indictments and a record-breaking seizure of Fentanyl.
According to Hastings Police Chief Dave Wilske, “Current constraints on social media would have made that investigation more difficult.”
In specific, Wilske references the trend of added layers of encryption across social media platforms that are designed to protect users’ privacy. While Wilske acknowledged the incentives to protect users, that encryption “effectively protects dealers,” said Wilske.
The Cooper Davis and Devin Norring Act comes at a high tide of Fentanyl use within the Hastings community.
“Theres no community in my congressional district that has been hit harder by the opioid and Fentanyl poisoning crisis we have in this country,” said Craig.
In a public safety meeting held Friday, June 28 with Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy and Sen. Judy Seeberger, Dakota County Sheriff Joe Leko spoke to the spike of usage that occurred during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Dakota County had 65 overdoses in 2021. This year the county is on track for 24 if current trends continue. In Hastings in 2024, there have been five overdose deaths, “almost one a month,” said Hastings Deputy Chief of Police Bryan Schowalter. Sheriff Leko is quick to point out that “one death is too many,” but such a precipitous drop is only a good thing. Factors in that decline are a wider availability of Narcan, increased awareness of the dangers of Fentanyl-laced pills, and a general downward trend post-Covid.
“It's starting to level off,” said Leko, referencing the only 3% increase in overdoses from 2022-2023.
Despite that leveling off, law enforcement are on track to seize a record-breaking amount of pills this year. Local law enforcement have already seized more than 300,000 pills in 2024. “We are going to surpass last year easily and last year was the most we’ve ever had,” said Sheriff Leko.
Dakota County and Hastings fall within the North Central High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA). HIDTAs are a federal classification for an area that, “is a significant center of illegal drug production, manufacturing, importation, or distribution,” according to the DEA. HIDTAs allow cooperation between local, state, and federal law enforcement in order to better address the sale of illegal drugs.
The North Central HIDTA includes Hennepin, Anoka, Washington, Ramsey, Dakota, Olmstead, and Saint Louis counties within Minnesota and several counties in Wisconsin including those around Milwaukee. When it came to Dakota County joining the HIDTA, “it was an easy sell for us unfortunately,” said Sheriff Leko.
In part due to the widened scope provided by HIDTA, Sheriff Leko spoke to the importance of identifying trends across the country in order to proactively respond. Using overdose data, law enforcement can track ships of drugs as they move through the country, often south to north and prepare for particularly deadly shipments.
Another trend that is on the rise is Xylazine, a non-opioid sedative commonly used as a tranquilizer for horses and cattle. Xylazine is not approved for use in humans and isn’t able to be treated with Naloxone. It is appearing in more and more illegal opioid pills often under the name “tranq.”
“We try to be as proactive as we can,” said Sheriff Leko.