Brad’s* doctor had never heard of Xanax.
The 17-year-old sat in his GP’s office in August 2016, explaining to him everything he knew about the drug.
When he and his friends started experimenting with an illegal, counterfeit version of Pfizer-brand Xanax at the beginning of 2016, it was just a fun thing to do at parties – or, occasionally, a way to come down after a heavy weekend.
Eight months on, he had a four-pills-a-day habit and felt he was “losing it”. He was apathetic – and occasionally violent. He could feel his personality changing.
Brad decided to quit cold turkey. Withdrawal from benzodiazepines – the family of drugs to which Xanax belongs – can be life-threatening, so he knew it was going to be difficult. But he was still unprepared for his first seizure, a week and a half later.
That was when he decided to tell his mum, and that’s how he ended up in front of his GP in Kent, trying to explain how he’d managed to get hooked on an anti-anxiety medication that was prescribed just 14 times in 2016 according to NHS England.
“My GP Googled it,” says Brad. “Every medical professional I’ve seen about my seizures hasn’t known what Xanax is.”
Officially, Xanax barely exists in the UK. In America, it’s the third most popular psychiatric drug according to one peer-reviewed study – a modern lotus plant with cult status among celebrities and a notoriety made worse by its implication in the recent death of rapper Lil Peep. But in the UK, it’s usually only available with a private prescription.
Even so, over the last three years many different parts of the UK have reported the mass-hospitalisation of schoolchildren in fake Xanax-related incidents. These include six London schoolgirls who allegedly took it in school in February; “up to 20” young people in Wiltshire in May 2017; and five Sidmouth teenagers in June 2016. NHS Grampian and Police Scotland issued warnings in January 2018 after alprazolam – the generic name for Xanax – was implicated in more than 20 deaths.
