What's in fake ‘Xanax’?: A dosage survey of designer benzodiazepines in counterfeit pharmaceutical tablets
Karen Blakey, Amanda L. Thompson, Abbey Matheson, Andrew Griffiths
Abstract
The identification of a range of different drugs within counterfeit benzodiazepine tablets has been widely reported; however, limited information is available on the dosage of these products. A rapid dosage survey of 46 counterfeit benzodiazepine tablets from 20 seizures was conducted over a 6-month period between April and September 2020. Existing methods utilised for the determination of benzodiazepines in toxicology specimens were applied to assess the dosage of four benzodiazepines detected across five different counterfeit benzodiazepine presentations. The highest dosage variation was observed for etizolam with a range of 0.7-8.3 mg per tablet. This report demonstrates the variability in drug content and dosage that can occur between visually similar counterfeit tablets, even when co-packaged within the same seizure, highlighting the potential public harm posed by these counterfeit medications.