CHARLESTON, WV (WVNS) — Attorney General Patrick Morrisey addressed West Virginia residents at a press conference Monday, giving the families of victims who lost their lives to fentanyl the chance to speak.

“We’ve been working, pushing for fentanyl to be classified as a weapon of mass destruction,” Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said.

Jeffery Uphold II was found on the Monongahela River after suffering from fentanyl poisoning.

His mother, Joellen Uphold, said her son’s case is still open, even today.

“The autopsy showed my sweet boy had been deceased prior to being thrown in the river. The toxicology also showed that Jeffery had 210 mg of fentanyl in his system. Heroin was Jeffery’s drug of choice, not fentanyl,” Uphold said.

According to Morrisey, the number one cause of death of people aged 18 to 24 is fentanyl poisoning.

He also announced he received letters from prominent social media companies such as Meta, Snapchat, and TikTok in response to questions about how social media plays a part in the Fentanyl epidemic.

Meta’s response said quote,

“Our Restricted Goods and Services policies cover both non-medical and pharmaceutical drugs. We prohibit the sale of illicit drugs on Facebook and Instagram and remove it from those apps when detected.”

Snapchat stated,

“Snap’s approach to combating fentanyl dealing and opioid overdoses centers on four key areas. First, we are investing heavily in on-platform detection and mitigation of lethal drug content. Second, we enhanced our law enforcement operations team and deepened our collaboration with law enforcement agencies to more effectively and efficiently support their investigations. Third, we developed and launched education and public awareness campaigns to help inform our community of the dangers of fentanyl and counterfeit pills, and continue to do so.”

And TikTok said,

“We have a zero-tolerance policy for the sale, trade, promotion, use, and the depiction of drugs, including controlled substances like fentanyl, for both organic and paid content. While some of our policies make exceptions for satire or comedy, our policies governing content that depicts drugs have no exceptions because of the potential harm and normalization that can follow.”