Health warning issued after fake black market Xanax tablets

Authorities say the tragic death of a 20-year-old Melbourne man who took fake black market Xanax tablets should serve as a scary warning for Victorians.

Fake black market Xanax tablets linked to at least eight Victorian deaths and many ­recent overdoses have prompted an urgent health warning.

Health authorities on Thursday raised the alarm over round, white, unmarked tablets being sold illegally as “Mylan” or “Xanax”, but which instead contain a deadly mix of five unregulated benzodiazepine drugs.

The warning came after Victoria’s coroner released findings into the death of a 20-year-old Melbourne man who had taken the black market “Xannies” – one of eight fatalities attributed to the pills.

It also comes two months after a Herald Sun investigation first revealed crime gangs were flooding suburban streets with imported counterfeit benzodiazepines, fuelling an increasing rate of overdoses and 28 deaths in total during 2020.

At least five people have been hospitalised after overdosing on the same tablets, prompting the Department of Health to issue an alert that counterfeit benzos are often more potent and unpredictable than prescription drugs.

“Even small doses have led to hospitalisations. Risks ­increase if mixed with other depressants,” the health alert stated.

Round, white, unmarked tablets are being sold illegally as ‘Mylan’ or ‘Xanax’, but instead contain a deadly mix of five unregulated benzodiazepine drugs.

Known by authorities as new psychoactive substances, the fake medicines are made to mimic the effects of prescription anti-anxiety benzodiazepine drugs, such as Xanax, but are being sold for between $10 each and $300 a bottle.

Blood tests from the overdose patients identified five different novel benzos contained in the pills – bromazolam, clonazolam, etizolam, flualprazolam and flubromazepam – none of which are pharmaceutical products or ingredients of Xanax or other prescription medicines.

Highlighting the horror circumstances of the death of a man identified only as “Mr S”, coroner Sarah Gebert warned that such overdoses were “an emerging trend”.

Friends who saw Mr S taking what they thought were prescription drugs during a June 28, 2020 party later filmed him snoring in a deep sleep, but were unable to revive him when he had stopped breathing by 1.46pm the next day.

Investigators later found a bottle labelled as being 2mg ­alprazolam (Xanax) with Mr S’s body, as well as texts on his phone revealing he’d previously taken “Xannie” with a friend.

However, toxicology reports confirmed the drugs in Mr S’s system were not Xanax, but new psychoactive substance benzos etizolam and flubromazolam – two of the same drugs responsible for the latest spate of overdoses.

“The available evidence suggests that he did not know he had ingested either of these drugs,” the coroner found.

“Instead, he believed he was using alprazolam (Xanax) that he had purchased illicitly from the unregulated drug market.

“Mr S was likely not the only person in Victoria to die after using counterfeit alprazolam in 2020.

“The Coroners Prevention Unit identified eight other overdose deaths during 2020 in Victoria which involved both etizolam and flubromazolam as contributing drugs, and in five of these there was direct or indirect evidence that the deceased person believed they were using alprazolam.”

As revealed by the Herald Sun in March, designer benzos were almost unheard of before 2018, but have become the most lethal form of underground drugs in Victoria.

Rachelle Abouchedid, an emergency doctor at Bendigo Health as well as a clinical toxicology fellow at the Victorian Poisons Information Centre, said recent overdose patients had little idea what drugs they were really taking.

“We see the full spectrum of severity. Often these patients have a profound altered state of consciousness, they may be found by friends or family in a public, personal environment or even in a car.

“It can be so profound that a deep coma affects their breathing and we are often providing critical care resources.”

Free confidential support for benzo issues is available on 1300 273 266