SA Police express concerns over fake Xanax, counterfeit benzo
While the use of other drugs like methamphetamine, cannabis and fantasy continue at alarming rates in SA, it’s a new type of drug that is worrying police.
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Fake pharmaceuticals have become the new “party drug” of choice in South Australia with more and more young people turning to them as a preference to ecstasy and MDMA.
The type of drug is designed to imitate Xanax, a prescription drug in America, but in SA, there is no guarantee on what a fake tablet may contain.
Superintendent Billy Thompson from the SA Police Serious and Organised Crime Branch said the drug was gaining traction, labelling their explosion into the drug market as a “big concern”.
He said while other drugs like meth and cannabis were used without discrimination, fake pharmaceuticals were “attracting” younger people.
“New drugs coming in that young people are being attracted to are counterfeit pharmaceuticals,” he said.
“We see a lot of young people going in that direction and using those sort of sedative type drugs.”
Legitimate Xanax tablets contain benzodiazepine – or benzos – which is used widely in the States to treat anxiety, depression and panic disorders and prescribed to about 20 million people.
In South Australia, and the rest of the country, the drug is illegal and not prescribed.
The result, Supt Thompson says, is illegal manufacturing, leading to unknown substances contained within the counterfeit drug.
“(They) are a big concern because there’s no pharmaceutical control on what people are taking,” he said.
“They don’t know 100 per cent what’s in it, which makes it really dangerous.
“The brand is Xanax, but you can’t actually buy Xanax in Australia – they’re not available legally.
“If you’re taking a Xanax tablet, you’re taking a fake benzo, and you don’t know what you’re getting and you don’t know what impact it’s going to have.”
The past year has seen the dire consequences of that unknown.
In May three teenagers – one of them in state care – were hospitalised after overdosing on fake Xanax tablets before a 18-year-old Elizabeth Vale man Dylan Daniel Bradwell was arrested and charged with drug trafficking and supplying a controlled drug to a child – charges he is yet to enter a plea to.
Before that, in December last year, a 22-year-old Woodcroft man was found dead in his home from a suspected overdose allegedly linked to the arrest of his friend, 25-year-old Ascot Park man Jessie Sam Anderson, who later pleaded guilty to drug trafficking.
The investigation of Anderson discovered he had used his phone to advertise drugs.
Supt Thompson said the availability of drugs online, and the ability to source them to your home, contribute to police’s concern.
“The other concern I’ve seen is technology, internet and the dark net, “ he said.
“The ability to source drugs from your lounge room, as opposed to going and meeting someone in a car park and doing a street deal has changed the way people buy drugs.
“And it changes the way people import drugs into the country as well.”
An Advertiser investigation found 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 18 months.
The investigation revealed Snapchat, Discord, WhatsApp and other social media apps were being used to buy and sell drugs like fake pharmaceuticals.
Supt Thompson said, despite the latest drug sweeping the underground market in SA, the police response to cracking down on trafficking was largely the same.
The response, he said, involved targeting the individuals and drug syndicates involved in introducing the drug to the market to disrupt supply chains.
“We do a lot of work to identify the syndicates and individuals involved in bringing drugs into the state - that’s either across our state borders or across international borders,” he said.
“The best case scenario is we keep the drugs from crossing our borders or getting them at the borders.”
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Originally published as SA Police express concerns over fake Xanax, counterfeit benzo
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