COVER STORY
The celebrity craze for stress pills is even reaching
schoolchildren – should we be concerned?
Kevin Flemen looks at the risks and availability
of alprazolam, branded as Xanax
Under PressUre
A
friend of mine in Hackney was recounting a
recent case involving the death of a child at
her daughter’s school. While the inquest
results were still awaited, it appeared the
death may have involved alprazolam. When I
voiced some surprise at this drug being a factor, my
friend said: ‘All of my daughter’s friends are going on
about Xanax. It’s really the thing at the moment.’
Xanax is the brand name of the benzodiazepine
alprazolam. It is highly potent – some 20 times the
strength of diazepam (Valium) – with a medium
duration of effect and a half-life of around 12 hours. It
is widely prescribed in America with claims that it is
now the number one prescribed psychiatric
medication. Most legal use in the UK is from private
prescriptions as it is not prescribed on the NHS, but it
is also available via the dark web.
Over the past few years, most UK reports of
alprazolam have referred to it as a cut in heroin rather
than a significant drug in its own right. Norwich police
warned of alprazolam in heroin back in 2004, and in
the more recent heroin ‘drought’ around 2010, reports
circulated of orange-tinted heroin linked to overdoses.
Historically, the most popular benzodiazepine in
the UK has been diazepam, which was frequently
diverted from legitimate prescriptions. As prescribers
were repeatedly reminded about the need to address
widespread over-prescribing, people seeking sedation
have had to resort to looking elsewhere.
6 | drinkanddrugsnews | April 2017
Some injectors turned to temazepam, albeit with
disastrous health consequences following the intro -
duction of Gelthix capsules intended to deter injecting.
Pregabalin and gabapentin increasingly became
the prescribed drugs of choice, and workers and peer
educators reported an increase in ‘pregabs’ as a core
drug of polydrug use – initially in custodial settings
and then in community settings too. ‘It’s like sciatica is
a catching condition,’ commented a prison drugs
worker on a training course, noting ruefully how many
prisoners presented to the medical team complaining
of neuropathic pain in the hope that it would result in
a pregabalin prescription.
Further afield, online pharmacies represented a
ready source of tablets sold as diazepam. Overseas
suppliers sold it in the form of blue pills – some
genuine, but others containing a range of
compounds or none of the drug at all. Canny
consumers became increasingly wary of purchasing
diazepam from such sources.
The explosion of novel psychoactives brought with
it the advent of numerous novel benzodiazepines,
includ ing phenazepam, etizolam and flubromazepam.
These worked, and were cheap and widely available.
Rather than seeking dwindling NHS prescriptions or
chancing random blue pills from Asia, more of the
depressant market turned to these NPS
benzodiazepines.
So back to Xanax. Is it becoming a ‘thing’ in the UK?
If so, why – and to what extent is this likely to become
a trend?
The drug has gained profile significantly. It has
been linked to a number of high-profile celebrity
deaths and continues to be associated with the media,
earning mentions in music and film as well as
appearing in many internet memes.
If diazepam is possibly a bit old and fusty, Xanax
has become the sedating pill for those stressed by
celebrity rather than mundanity. The school-age peers
of the friend I mentioned at the start had come to
Xanax via its associations with American celebrities. It
was fashionable.
In recent sessions with young people in a number
of settings, I’ve been exploring awareness of Xanax. In
one (albeit small) group of young people in Norwich,
all had heard of it and they mentioned memes that
they had seen.
Although alprazolam isn’t significantly prescribed
in the UK, there’s good availability via the dark web. A
search filtered for European suppliers returned 297
entries on Dream Market. By comparison, diazepam
returned 391 entries. Costs varied significantly, but
The drug has gained
profile significantly. It has
been linked to a number
of high-profile celebrity
deaths and continues to
be associated with the
media, earning mentions
in music and film as well
as appearing in many
internet memes.
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com