Xanax is the brand name for the drug “Alprazolam” used to treat anxiety and panic attacks. In our country, it is available under brand names such as Restyl, Alprax, etc. It belongs to a class of medications called benzodiazepines, which act on the brain to produce a calming effect. There are thousands who take this drug for a good night’s rest but few know that prolonged intake makes you addicted to the same and its initial good effect wanes with time when there’s an urge to increase the dose.
A worrying aspect now is that children as young as 11 are being treated for Xanax abuse, the BBC has found. 13-year-olds are found taking the tranquillizer on school premises. The BBC has seen a number of letters from teachers to parents raising concerns over increasing abuse of prescription medications. One teacher said he feared pupils had made an assumption that taking Xanax was safer than using illegal drugs.
Though it is widely prescribed and can be obtained on private prescription it has come to light that among some teenagers and young adults in Britain it is increasingly being abused. The extent of the problem in India is not known. Xanax puts lives at risk.
Teenagers are often buying the drug on social media in spite of the fact that the drug sold here is often found to be fake.
To gain an idea of the scale of Xanax abuse, the BBC sent a freedom of information request to six ambulance services about Xanax ingestion incidents where the patient was aged under 18. It turned out that in 2017,ambulance services recorded 240 calls of Xanax abuse by children aged between 11 and 18.
It is clear that the risks are not understood and the abuse of prescription medication has become a trend. Pupils believed it was “a safe alternative to illegal drugs”, obtaining supplies mainly from the dark web.
Because it’s seen as a prescription drug and therefore assuming it is not dangerous, the risks are minimized. Schoolchildren are led to believe from peers that youngsters can safely use it when they’re facing exam stress or going through difficult times in their lives.
Students who abuse the drug can be spotted by their slurred speech, unsteadiness of gait and drunken appearance.
“Addaction” is one of the UK’s leading mental health, drug and alcohol charities. It is “concerned” by the number of teenagers it was helping. The addiction problems related to Xanax are huge. Tolerance to the drug builds very, very fast. What is more, a lot of young people don’t realise the dosage they’re taking is far too much until they are seen collapsing on school premises having to be rushed to hospitals.
Teenagers also have no qualms about buying the raw ingredients from the dark web to produce their own version of the drug. That means many fail to realise that the Xanax they are buying is not of pharmacy grade and is instead counterfeit.
One 17-year-old, who wished to remain anonymous, said he started taking Xanax at 14 to calm his anxiety. He said he had mixed the drug with alcohol, and ended up in hospital a couple of times. People need to be careful, because they can take one bar and feel absolutely fine, and then they can take another one and then two days later wake up in a police cell or hospital with absolutely no memory of what happened.”
A BBC investigation into Xanax found that, last year, Border Force officers seized more than 50kg of the powder form of the drug – enough to make 25 million typical-sized pills containing 2mg each. A Home Office statement said firm action was being taken “to prevent the harm caused by drugs. It added: “Law enforcement agencies continue to work with internet providers to shut down UK-based websites found to be selling these drugs illegally. We have found dangerous ingredients such as boric acid, heavy metals and floor polish in counterfeit medicines. Counterfeit Xanax pills laced with a powerful painkiller have become a party drug among some young people.” Now, Public Health England is warning users they are “dicing with death”.
Xanax has previously been glorified by hip-hop artists, and is often featured in lyrics. In November 2017, the rapper Lil Peep was found dead after an overdose of Xanax. Xanax is at the heart of the issues involving prescription drug addiction. The drug is taken to relieve people from anxiety and panic disorders, although it is often misused due to the calming effects and tranquil high it can provide.
Reports indicate that material people without a spiritual outlook tend not to be healthy or happy. Stress, incontrovertibly exacerbated by these factors, is “a major contributor to the initiation and continuation of alcohol or other drug abuse”. While it would be incorrect to draw a causal link between stress, agnosticism and widespread addiction, it’s safe to say that this correlation cannot – and should not – be ignored. The modern way of life sounds like it is sick, and drug overuse and abuse might be a symptom of this illness – what happens when existential entrapment and chemical escapism intersect.
(Dr. Francisco Colaço is a seniormost consulting physician, pioneer of Echocardiography in Goa.)
