PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Pennsylvania has joined a coalition of states that are calling on the federal government to immediately intervene against a deadly designer drug that is meant to mimic prescription pills.
Bromazolam — referred to as “designer Xanax” — is often sold online and marketed to teenagers. The pills are made to look like Xanax, Klonopin, Valium, Ativan and other benzodiazepines as if they came from a pharmacy, but they are manufactured in unregulated, dirty labs and cut with dangerous substances.
Bromazolam is not approved for medical use, and experts warn that it is both highly addictive and dangerously potent.
“You have people that are mixing these drugs with heroin or mixing them with fentanyl. And when those drugs are mixed together, it increases the likelihood of an overdose,” said Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday.
Overdose reversal medications like naloxone are ineffective against bromazolam.
“You have some people buying what they think is Xanax. You have other people buying what they think is bromazolam. You have other people that are just buying pills because they just think that those pills will get them high somehow,” he added.
Sunday signed a letter along with 20 other attorneys general asking the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to schedule bromazolam.
“When you have drugs that are scheduled — in particular, Schedule I, Schedule II — that allows the federal government and the state government … to utilize much more severe penalties,” he said.
The state Department of Health said bromazolam has killed hundreds of Pennsylvanians since 2022.
The DEA has not responded to the coalition’s request.