'Extremely triggering': Facebook drug ads cause concern for Calgarian in recovery

A Calgary man who struggled with addiction for more than two decades is questioning why his Facebook account has been showing advertisements for drugs.

A Calgary man who struggled with addiction for more than two decades is questioning why his Facebook account has been showing advertisements for drugs.

Eric Priddle has been sober for more than a year, and says he noticed more questionable Facebook ads on his feed when he started posting updates about his recovery journey.  

Priddle says ads for online pharmaceutical companies selling everything from medicinal cocaine and MDMA nasal sprays to "discreet party favours" began appearing on his Facebook feed.

"I kind of feel angry about it, I feel like there should be some accountability on the part of Facebook for this," he said.

The 35-year-old says he's worried ads like this could prove troubling for others trying to get clean, as well as his other Facebook contacts.

"If I was in early recovery, that would be extremely triggering for me," he said.

"I know that that there's some sort of proximal algorithm that Facebook uses to advertise to people you're around. Many vulnerable people on my friends list could be targeted and affected by this, not to mention the people that aren't necessarily addicts, but those that are young and impressionable – and if they're seeing it on Facebook, then there's not an underlying tone of it being wrong to buy these drugs if they're available on a trusted media platform."