WASHINGTON (TND) — The Drug Enforcement Administration is working to crack down on dangerous drugs invading communities around the United States.

Getting illicit pills is just as easy as getting food with a delivery app, DEA Administrator Anne Milgram told a House Appropriations Subcommittee earlier this week. Milgram said all it takes is a few taps on a smartphone and pills will be at your front door.

"People know what to state, that they're ordering and have the language or the emojis that they use for coding for that," said Deesa Bergen-Cico, a Professor of Public Health at Syracuse University.

According to the DEA, people are now using everyday technology to buy drugs online.

They are using these platforms like Xbox and other gaming platforms where they can communicate and it's difficult to track," Bergen-Cico said.

At a recent international drug trafficking conference she attended, Bergen-Cico said they spoke in depth about allocating resources online.

"Really becoming experts in terms of AI and the dark web and the gaming platforms and the technologies that people are using," said Bergen-Cico.

Because without that type of insight, stopping drugs like fentanyl from being sold online and getting into the United States, could prove to be an even bigger challenge than it already is.

The people you're trying to defeat are becoming more and more sophisticated all the time as well so that makes it harder," said Richard Miller, a professor emeritus of pharmacology at Northwestern University.

The DEA said 22 American teenagers between the ages of 14-18 die every week because of illegal drug use.

The agency is requesting more funding from Congress to better track drugs entering the country. They want to send 13 agents and intel analysts into Mexico to help fight the growing problem.

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