They are classified as new psychoactive substances (NPS) – drugs designed to mimic the effects of prescription drugs. Although illegal in Australia, they are often sold online as “legal highs” or “legal” substitutes for prescription drugs.4 Schedule 8 drugs are controlled drugs that pose a high risk of abuse and dependence. They have additional legal restrictions on how they are stored, prescribed, and distributed. It is often assumed that Australia`s illicit drug market is spreading through resale and “doctors` shopping”, justifying further restrictions on lawyers. But in reality, a new wave of illegitimately “squeezed” benzodiazepines is flooding the black market. And the topic is gaining momentum on social media. There is more talk about benzos and their “legal” alternatives, but many people don`t know how risky they can be. Others are made in illegal factories abroad and sold on the black market. Information on treatment approvals in Schedule 8 can be found in the “On this website” section. Meanwhile, Nicola stops using benzodiazepines after stopping cold turkey about a year ago. But she still knows a lot of people who do.
Some overdose, while others are trapped in the detox cycle. It tells the story of a friend who was reported by a pharmacy and was then persuaded to do a two-week inpatient detox — an approach Nicola disparages as the point. “[I also] heard that [Rohypnol] is used in low doses to increase the effect,” they add. “But I guess they would only reduce alprazolam with etizolam [a common benzodiazepine analogue] to reduce costs, since etizolam costs half the price [of alprazolam].” New benzos often have similar chemical structures to prescribed benzos.5 This family of chemicals was first launched in 1960 by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche, but it wasn`t until the release of Valium in 1963 that benzodiazepine use became widespread. Until 1968, Valium was the most commonly prescribed drug in the United States. In 1973, it was reported that Australian practitioners had scribbled 7 million Valium receipts that year alone. And until 1977, benzodiazepines were considered the most commonly prescribed drugs in the world. Prescriptions for the highly addictive anti-anxiety drug alprazolam dropped 22 percent in 12 months, according to the researchers.
In addition, the rise of pressed Xanax has contributed to an influx of benzodiazepine analogues: gray-market compounds with almost identical effects but slightly different molecular compositions. RANZCP has developed a guide, Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia: Australian Treatment Guide for Consumers and Carers. The guide is available on the RANZCP website. For clinical advice from addiction professionals, health professionals can call the Clinical Drug and Alcohol Advisory Service (DACAS). Today, the harms of Valium in particular and benzodiazepines in general are well accepted. Doctors realize that if mixed with other drugs, such as alcohol or opiates, there is a real risk of fatal overdose. They also know that withdrawal symptoms develop after as little as three weeks and that stopping medication is hellish. Your muscle cramps. His stomach is spinning. Your brain is deforming and collapsing. You can`t eat. You can`t sleep.
And if you don`t follow a reduction in Valium for an average of 10 weeks, you can have seizures and, in rare cases, die. Xanax or alprazolam was commonly prescribed for anxiety disorders and insomnia, but in 2014, Australia`s main drug agency tightened rules around their prescribing in response to concerns about abuse and rising overdose rates. A study analysing the impact of debt restructuring, conducted by researchers at the University of New South Wales, found that prescriptions for the drug fell by 22% in the first 12 months since the stricter regulation was introduced. If a patient has a history of substance abuse, the applicant must also submit a declaration form indicating that certain steps have been taken with respect to the patient`s management. Alprazolam recipes are valid for 6 months. These new prescription rules will apply from 1 February 2014, regardless of when the order was written. Nicola* was 16 when he was first prescribed Valium; A moment she struggles to remember. “One of the disadvantages of benzo addiction is that my memory is quite poor,” she explains. It is also commonly abused and has a “much higher risk of mortality and overdose” than other benzodiazepines, Dr. Schaffer said. Dr.
Brett has spent the last decade researching prescription drugs in Australia. Her unpublished and published research has revealed unexpected trends, such as how teenage girls are more likely to overdose on benzodiazepines or most users are older, while doctors typically prescribe larger amounts. And in Victoria, there has been a sharp increase in deaths from new benzos – from one in 2018; to 10 in 2019; and 28 in 2020.1 “So [flubromazolam] is just an analogue of diazepam,” one user from Western Australia explained via Telegram. “Why did someone create this? Easy to bypass import laws. That`s why people are moving away from fake benzos. “Patients are still prescribed hundreds of Xanax tablets a year, despite a reduction in government subsidies.” If we don`t address demand along with supply, supply will shift to places like the internet,” says Dr. Brett. “When implementing policies to reduce supply, it is very important to measure unintended consequences.” It didn`t take long for Nicola to realize that the more she took, the better she felt, and within a year she had developed an addiction. By the age of 20, her tolerance had increased and she was prescribed 6 mg of Xanax – equivalent to 120 mg of Valium – which she took almost every day.
When she wanted to detach, she spent the day eating Xanax and sometimes adding lorazepam. If she wanted to lose her inhibitions, she drank or added stimulants. To function only daily, Nicola relied on benzodiazepines. “In fact, many poisoning events involved the strength of the two-milligram tablet, which tells us that it is probably still circulating in the community, most likely through private prescriptions,” Dr. Schaffer said. Nicola remembers struggling with chronic anxiety and how her psychiatrist issued a prescription. According to Nicola, there was no discussion about whether the drug was addictive – just a brief instruction that if she felt anxious, she should take a single 5mg pill. Nicola`s experience is one of countless stories of benzodiazepine abuse that have been circulating for nearly 60 years – which is interesting because their overprescription was recognized in Australia at least 30 years ago. But so far, any harm reduction strategy has produced mixed results. Some are developed by pharmaceutical companies overseas, but have not been tested or approved for sale in Australia.6 This decision was made due to the increasing abuse of alprazolam and concerns about the safety and well-being of those taking it. Between 2015 and 2021, there were 40 overdose deaths of new benzos in Australia.3 “There is supposed to be a maximum size of 10 tablets, but people are given 50 tablets, 100 tablets.
We suspect it`s because they got rid of the two-milligram tablets, so people were prescribed larger amounts of the tablet`s lower strength,” Dr. Schaffer said. Experts told the ministry that they were unlikely to support continued treatment with alprazolam. This partly explains why calls for further work in this area fell on deaf ears in the 2000s. In 2006, when parliamentary recommendations and letters from medical officials called for stricter access to benzodiazepines, government agencies rejected them, saying the problem was “the professional liability of doctors and pharmacists.” The pharmacist must confirm each handwriting on list 8 of the prescriptions and may need to contact the doctor who prescribed the medication. This was not without its problems – as evidenced by a 1967 letter to the British Medical Journal by a doctor who had seen a patient who had debilitating withdrawal symptoms – but it appears that most medical professionals largely ignored their own observations, as well as a growing amount of literature on addiction. Whether it`s the result of Roche`s strong marketing for Valium, or the appeal of the idea that a simple pill could relieve stress, benzodiazepine prescribing has gone unchecked for decades. The term “pressed” street describes liquid or powdered benzodiazepines smuggled into Australia, cut, pressed into a pill machine and sold as imitation. The look and quality, as well as what they`re cut with, vary depending on who you ask, but their availability is widespread and fueled by restrictions on pharmacies. Benzodiazepines were identified in 824 deaths and were the most common substance responsible for deaths involving a type of drug in 2017, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
Some analogues are actually controlled and regulated – but given that at least 41 new synthetic drugs were produced in 12 months in 2011, regulation cannot track production. Healthdirect France is not responsible for the content and advertising on the external website you are currently visiting. “If you`re trying to combat the inappropriate use of anything, especially medication, there`s fruit on hand and there`s fruit on hand,” says Dr. S. Jonathan Brett, a specialist in clinical pharmacology, toxicology and addiction at St. Vincent`s Hospital in Sydney.