Benzodiazepines and Etizolam — What The Heck Are Those?

What's In Those Drugs?

Written by and for people with Lived Experience - Port Alberni Community Action Team - Families Helping Families

Today’s Learning Moment – 03 29 21 Issue: Benzodiazepines ^{( 1 )} and Etizolam ^{( 2 )} — What The Heck Are Those?

What do you do if you’re a drug dealer and a worldwide pandemic comes along? Borders are closed, your regular drug supplies taper off to a trickle of their normal levels. Your customers are starving for your product. If anything, the demand has actually increased. More people than ever are looking for ways to forget their troubles or just make real life go away for a few hours.

You can’t get much heroin. It’s bulky, hard to hide and impossible to source due to COVID border restrictions.

What you do have is lots of Fentanyl. It’s completely made in a lab. No waiting for plants to grow, or harvest them. No refining process to create Heroin from the Poppy plant. The profit margin is huge compared to Heroin and it’s so much easier to ship and hide.

However, your clients want to believe they’re at least getting some Heroin for their money. Also, even though Fentanyl is an extremely powerful drug, it doesn’t provide the same instant level of euphoria that Heroin does.

No problem — we’ll just throw in a bunch of other drugs ^{( 3 ) ( 5 ) ( 6 )} into our Fentanyl based product to copycat Herion as close as possible. That includes just about anything the drug dealer can get his hands on. They’ll cut their product with flour or corn starch to make it go further. If they can get their hands on other drugs that help mimic Herion, those go into their Fentanyl too. That’s where Benzodiazepines and Etizolam come into play. ^{( 4 )}

These two types of drugs are plentiful, cheap and easy to add to the artificial “Heroin” made with Fentanyl. As of March 2023, Benzodiazepines ^{( 1 )} in more than 20% and Etizolam ^{( 2 )} 35% of street opioid-like drugs available in BC.

Best of all, from the perspective of drug producers, these drugs add properties to the Fentanyl that makes it as attractive as Heroin to users.

Unfortunately, these drugs also make the end product some of the deadliest drugs in the world. Both Benzodiazepines ^{( 1 )} and Etizolam ^{( 2 ).} effects are cumulative with Fentanyl based illicit drugs. Most of us would recognize these drugs if I called them Valium, Xanax or Ativan. In their own right, they are extremely addictive for most people. More importantly, because they depress the breathing centre in the brain, they can be very dangerous. Added to Fentanyl-based illicit drugs and they become deadly.

Last but not least, neither Benzodiazepines ^{( 1 )} or Etizolam ^{( 2 ).} Can be counteracted by Naloxone if an overdose occurs. That makes any overdose situation with these drugs and Fentanyl extremely dangerous.

Knowledge is power. In this case, being aware that other drugs are probably in the street drug supply means that we have to plan for an overdose that can’t be countered by Naloxone. That means being ready to give CPR and calling 1^st Responders ASAP. It’s also an opportunity to talk with our family members who have substance illnesses.

Make sure they understand using alone is the worst possible situation. Always have a designated “driver” with you. Someone who isn’t using or use the BCLifeGaurd app or the Canada National Overdose Response Services NORS 888-688-6677 number.

Now, if I could only figure out how to pronounce Benzodiazepines or Etizolam

"BEN" + "zoh" + "dy" + "AY" + "zuh" + "peen"
“Eti” + “zo” + “lam”

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Author: Ron Merk — Ron is a person with family-lived experience. He advocates for people with substance or mental illness.

Families Helping Families is an initiative of the Port Alberni Community Action Team. We send out “Learning Moment” articles regularly to help folks understand substance illness. Knowledge is vital in understanding the illness of our family members. You may copy, distribute or share our articles as long as you retain the attribution. You can be added to our distribution list by dropping us a note at - albernihelp@gmail.com

This article was written using info from the following sources:

References

(1) Benzodiazepines — https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/substance-use/controlled-illegal-drugs/benzodiazepines.html

(2) Etizolam — https://go.drugbank.com/drugs/DB09166

(3) Other Drugs in the Drug Supply — https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/health-concerns/controlled-substances-precursor-chemicals/drug-analysis-service/2020-analyzed-drug-report-q1.html

(4) BC Government Notice Jan 2021 — https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/birth-adoption-death-marriage-and-divorce/deaths/coroners-service/news/2021/illicit-drug-news_release_2021.pdf

(5) Co-Occurring Substances in Illicit Drug Supply — https://www.ccsa.ca/sites/default/files/2020-04/CCSA-CCENDU-Adulterants-Contaminants-Co-occurring-Substances-in-Drugs-Canada-Report-2020-en.pdf

(6) Dangerous Street Drugs — https://datac.ca/dangerous-street-drugs-making-appearances-throughout-canada/?locale=en