KENTUCKY (FOX 56) — A deadly street drug is making its way through Kentucky, and Attorney General Russell Coleman is working to stop it before more lives are lost.
Bromazolam, also known as “designer Xanax,” is reportedly being sold online and on the streets and often passed off as a prescription pill.
“It looks like the same Xanax bars you may have, many may have in their medicine cabinet,” said Coleman. “That’s what makes this threat so insidious.”
Coleman said in a Tuesday news release that the drug is extremely dangerous and has been tied to the deaths of 47 Kentuckians last year. He urges people to only take medications that have been prescribed by a doctor and filled at a licensed pharmacy.
“We live at a time when as little as one pill can—and is—kill our children. As parents and public officials, we must do all we can to stop illicit drugs and counterfeit pills,” Attorney General Coleman said. “The threat is clear, and all of us must work together to keep these drugs off our streets to save Kentuckians’ lives.”
His office calls on the Drug Enforcement Administration to schedule bromazolam at the federal level.
“This stuff is going to metastasize, and we need the tools in law enforcement to go after those that bring this poison into Kentucky,” he emphasized.
Coleman said he hopes the Beshear administration will take emergency action to ban the drug as soon as possible.
FOX 56 reached out to a CHFS spokesperson, who said they will share more information soon.