Fake Xanax in Adelaide – and how Snapchat is being used to sell it to teens

Young South Australians are using encrypted messaging apps like Snapchat to source fake Xanax tablets – with dangerous and sometimes fatal results.

Young people are using encrypted messaging apps like Snapchat and Wickr Me to source fake Xanax tablets, with experts warning the results could be deadly.

Users have told The Advertiser that sourcing these drugs is “easy” through a variety of online sources.

It comes as police figures reveal 187 separate incidents in the past three years where drugs suspected to be fake Xanax tablets were seized, 53 of those incidents occurring in the past 12 months.

The Advertiser sought these figures after the hospitalisation of three teenagers in May and the death of a 22-year-old Woodcraft man in December.

Young people reported that drug dealers are everywhere online, and use platforms such as Discord, Whats App and Facebook for communication.

“There is no trace of any communication so you can’t be caught,” a Wickr user said.

Young people report that drug dealers are everywhere online, using social media platforms such as Snapchat and Wickr to do deals.

Roger Nicholas, senior manager of the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction at Flinders University, said that the idea of prescription drugs being “safer” than illicit drugs is “quite prominent” which is what gives the drugs their “appeal”.

Police reported that, in some instances, the fake Xanax were suspected to contain a benzodiazepine (benzos) called clonazolam, which Mr Nicholas said could be lethal.

The drug is also a known “date rape drug” according to Kate Fairweather, lecturer of public health and health equity at Flinders University.

“Physical effects can be sedation – including blacking out, you can lose your motor control – so you can look/feel drunk, you can get the ‘spins’ – it’s a really, very dangerous drug,” she said.

Clonzolam will remain prevalent as manufacturers move away from naturally produced drugs like heroin and cocaine, according to Mr Nicholas.

Deaths from overdoses have outnumbered the road toll since 2014 non-for-profit drug and community safety research organisation The Penington Institute reported, and bezos is the most common cause of drug-induced deaths according to the AIHW National Morality Database.

South Australia Police seized approximately 10,000 white tablets labelled Xanax. Picture: Supplied

The prevalence of these drugs on the street and in popular culture presents a lethal combination.

Popular rappers like Future, who has more than 38 million monthly listeners on Spotify, glorify the drug in their music rapping: “Taking prescription’s a hell of a feeling / As for the Xanny, I never forgot it”.

Drug use is prevalent in some our most celebrated films like Pulp Fiction and The Wolf of Wall Street, and is constantly referenced on reality television and in viral memes with related hashtags accumulating over 3.8m views on TikTok.

Dr Fairweather said youths look up to famous people and attempt to “emulate” them because they think what they’re doing is valid.

Police warn against taking tablets from unknown sources can be fatal.