Synthetic drugs like fentanyl, U47700, K2 and bath salts have quickly taken a huge market share from traditional street drugs like heroin and methamphetamine. As fast as we outlaw one drug, a lab in China will pop out a new one in quick succession and get it to the US market for illicit drug consumers. Now, we have seen a huge uptick in the number of synthetic benzodiazepines being imported and used in the US. To keep ahead of the curve, we should look at the top 4 synthetic benzos on the street right now. If current trends continue, this will be a significant problem for law enforcement in the near future.

Why are People Using Synthetic Benzos?

There are several reasons why people will use synthetic drugs. A 2013 study reviewed why people were using synthetic cannabinoids. Reasons for first use included curiosity (50%), legality (39%), availability (23%), recreational effects (20%), therapeutic effects (9%), non‐detection in standard drug screening assays (8%) and to aid the reduction or cessation of cannabis use (5%). What we know is that synthetic drugs are something we need to contend with.

The Source: Homemade Pills and the Darknet

There will be two principle ways that people will attain these new benzodiazepines. The user will buy it from a vendor on a Darknet market or they will buy it on the street from a person making the pills themselves.

The Darknet makes it easy for users to order these drugs online and have them delivered to their home. A quick search on several Darknet markets, where these drugs are sold, shows that there are thousands of distributors online. You can also buy benzos online through the indexed web (a traditional website found via Google or other search engine). As an example, one website is selling Etizolam online. This is a benzodiazepine that is not authorized for medical use. You can order Etizolam and have it delivered to your home without having to go to your corner drug dealer.

People involved in the distribution of these drugs will normally purchase the benzo powder through an online source (either the Darknet or indexed web). Once the drug arrives at their home, they will use a pill machine and binder to start popping out pills for their customers. I have worked cases in the past where a teenager will order Xanax powder from China via the Darknet and then press that powder into pills that look exactly like a regular pharmaceutical Xanax pill. In one case, a teenager was selling us 1,000 pills at a time and was pressing the pills in his mom’s garage.

So, what are these new drugs? Here are the most popular as of the writing of this article.

It’s Not Just Synthetic Benzos

These types of drugs will continue to grow in popularity. Benzodiazepines fall under the category of Central Nervous System Depressants. For now, synthetic benzos are popular manufacture. However, new drugs will come out that fall under the CNS Depressant category but won’t be classified as a benzodiazepine. So, what are the new drugs coming to market? Here are the most popular ones as of this writing.

1. Etizolam

According to the DEA, Etizolam is a prescription medication in Japan, India and Italy but has recently emerged on the illicit drug market in Europe and the United States. Etizolam is usually encountered in powder form or in tablet form. Etizolam has also been encountered spiked onto blotter paper.

Benzodiazepines are widely prescribed drugs; however, etizolam does not have an accepted medical use in the United States. Etizolam was introduced in 1983 in Japan as a treatment for neurological conditions such as anxiety and sleep disorders. It is available as 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg and 1.0 mg tablets in countries where it is marketed for clinical use.

2. Flubromazolam

Flubromazolam is sold online as a “designer drug”. These are also sometimes referred to as a Novel Psychoactive Substance (NPS) or a research chemical (RC). With as little as a .5 mg dose, the drug will cause heavy sedation and amnesia. This also brings up a concern that it could be used as a drug used to facilitate rape.

3. Xanax

Xanax is the brand name for a generic drug called Alprazolam. The most popular nicknames for those that abuse this drug are Zanies (the X at the beginning of Xanax is pronounced as a Z) and bars because the brand name drug looks like a bar. It is a sedative that is given to patients with anxiety. It is a widely prescribed drug, but at one point in many jurisdictions, fake Xanax was more available than legitimate Xanax. Lately, there have been several reports of Xanax on the street being laced with fentanyl.

It’s important to remember that dealers will buy Xanax powder from a source in China and then press the powder into pills with pill binder bought on the internet. The dealers will use a pill press also bought on the internet.

4. Clonazolam

Clonazolam is a CNS Depressant and benzodiazepine that is sold widely on the Darknet as a research chemical. There has been little legitimate research on this drug regarding its effects and metabolism. Research on this drug goes back to 1971. As with most of these types of designer drugs, there was legitimate research into them at one point. During that research, a paper was written about the research process. Along the way, someone found the original “recipe” and then recreated it in a lab and mass produced in China.

As with Flubromazolam, there is concern it poses a higher risk than other traditional benzodiazepines. Like Flubromazolam, Clonazolam produces amnesia and heavy sedation at a half a gram. That is very potent.

What the Future Holds

We are definitely in a new era with so many new synthetic drugs being developed. Although this is a small list of the most popular benzos to date, this list will grow dramatically. It will be interesting to look at this list one year after it’s written. More than likely, we will look back at it as ‘the good old days’ as these drugs will more than likely be our next big epidemic.