COVINGTON, KY — Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman is urging state leaders to ban bromazolam, an illicit drug linked to dozens of overdose deaths in the Commonwealth last year, according to our news partners at WCPO-TV.
Bromazolam, known as ‘designer Xanax,’ is being sold as prescription pills and has proven to be highly potent and lethal, especially when combined with opioids or other depressants.
Coleman credits Northern Kentucky law enforcement for alerting him to the threat, stating, ‘You had a very determined leader from your Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force who wanted to put this threat from this synthetic, this designer Xanax, on my radar.’
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The attorney general penned a letter to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, urging Secretary Steven Stack to take emergency action and schedule bromazolam as a controlled substance, WCPO-TV said.
Bromazolam was responsible for at least 47 overdose deaths in Kentucky in 2024, according to the state’s Office of Drug Control Policy.
Without an official ban, law enforcement can only charge bromazolam dealers with trafficking in a counterfeit substance, a nonviolent class D felony with a sentence of 1 to 5 years in prison.
Kenton County Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Sanders highlighted the disparity in punishment, noting, ‘The punishment for trafficking in heroin or fentanyl in Kentucky is a minimum of 5 years all the way up to life in prison.’Earlier this year, the Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service intercepted a parcel containing 958 bromazolam pills, WCPO-TV said.
Coleman is in talks with the DEA as bromazolam remains unscheduled at the federal level, while states like Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Virginia, and West Virginia have already scheduled it.
Coleman is working to have bromazolam scheduled in Kentucky, aiming to equip law enforcement with the necessary tools to combat its spread and protect families from its deadly effects.
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