Dr Jack Cunliffe comments on the issues around the rise in Xanax deaths in the UK and the increase of purchases being made on the darknet – and how it could be curbed.<\/p>\n
\u2018There has been a lot of concern recently about a rise in Xanax (the brand name for the sedative drug alprazolam) usage here in the UK, with reports of increasing deaths\u00a0in Northern Ireland<\/a>, high usage\u00a0and death rates in Scotland<\/a>\u00a0and specific clinics being\u00a0set up in London<\/a>\u00a0to address\u00a0what is increasingly being perceived as \u201cdarknet fuelled drug epidemic\u201d<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u2018Mention of the darknet is certain to trigger the public\u2019s imagination but we need to stop and think what is driving young people to go through the process of logging onto\u00a0these nefarious online marketplaces<\/strong>, risking their money to make such purchases, rather than attribute\u00a0their existence as the sole cause<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u2018My own upcoming research, in collaboration with the Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College London and the University of Montreal, does show a rise in the popularity of sedative drugs on darknet markets, with the UK level increasing at the quickest pace,\u00a0and it does show that there has been an increase in the purchasing of the most potent sedative alprazolam<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 where in the USA is\u00a0has been the most common version all along<\/strong>. However, diazepam, the \u2018traditional\u2019 sedative prescribed in the UK, is still the by some way the most popular.<\/p>\n \u2018Does this mean that it is that the darknet is fuelling this crisis though? These markets function much\u00a0like eBay<\/a>\u00a0and our research in other drugs products has shown that\u00a0these online markets are demand-led<\/strong>; reacting to what is being bought and increasing availability of\u00a0products accordingly<\/a>\u00a0and therefore a reflection of what youth want, rather than a cause.\u00a0 Not only that \u2013 but government operations to close them\u00a0seem to not only fail but\u00a0increase their overall popularity<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2018The solution is not breathless attempts to clamp down on these avenues of purchase, as they are likely to at best fail and at worse increase the problem,\u00a0but to educate people about these products and treat it as a health problem<\/strong>, informing people about the dangers of abuse of these drugs in their entirety. Darknet sources remain niche and comparatively rare compared to traditional way of obtaining drugs, and in much the same way that there are\u00a0concerns about\u00a0depression amongst youth<\/a>\u00a0the causes of the \u2018Xanax crisis\u2019 are complex<\/strong>, and will require holistic solutions rather than reductive attention to simplified darknet moral panics.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"