Flunitrazolam was first identified by an analytical laboratory in Germany on 6 October 2016, although there was seizure of 80 grey tablets in Sweden on 7 June 2016. No information about doses, effects, safety and tolerability has been published so far. It is also the triazolo version of the internationally controlled substance flunitrazepam 87, 150. 4-chlorodiazepam represents the 4-chloro-derivative of the internationally controlled substance diazepam, from which it differs due to the addition of a chloro substituent in the para or 4-position of the phenyl ring. Fonazepam is a controlled substance on Schedule IV of the Controlled Substances Act in the U.S.A. as a derivative of flunitrazepam . Fonazepam was first identified in a sample of 51 tablets (27 white, 15 blue and 9 grey tablets) found in Lidköping, by Swedish police on 10 March 2016.
- It was first synthetised by the Hoffman-La Roche in and recently appeared in the ‘grey drug market’ as an alternative to etizolam .
- In order to decrease the availability of these substances in the global illicit drug market, more effort is needed by early warning agencies to reduce the timing between formal notifications and scheduling decisions.
- Given the limited information on their pharmacology/toxicity, variations in dosage, onset of effects, combination of substances, potency, and general patient or individual variability, the concomitant use of these substances with other drugs entails several and unpredictable risks.
- There are several anecdotal reports from psychonaut fora, which described mostly an “anxiolytic and muscle relaxant effect … with a low tolerance shows hypnotic effects.
It was first synthetised by the Hoffman-La Roche in and recently appeared in the ‘grey drug market’ as an alternative to etizolam . Symptomatology occurs in minutes, effects may last hours and after-effects for more than 36 hours . The onset of symptomatology occurs in minutes, and effects may last 5-8 hours and after-effects for 1-12 hours . There are limited anecdotal reports from psychonaut fora which describe it as “quite sedating, amnesic and loss of inhibition at higher doses (…) anxiolytic effect at lower doses (…)” 52, 54.
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The early origins of phenazepam are hazy, but it is likely that the first synthesis occurred in the USSR in the mid-1970's, with the earliest mentions of it in Soviet medical literature coming from 1978. The danger in situations such as this is that people may take larger amounts of phenazepam while unaware that what they are taking is around 20 times more potent than what they believe they are taking . Later that year, 5 young people from the Scottish Borders were admitted to hospital follwing overdoses. Within the UK, concerns about increasing recreational phenazepam use were initially raised by the Scottish Primary Care and Community Directorate in 2010. Like drinking and driving, driving while high is illegal – and you may still be unfit to drive the day after using phenazepam. Because of the development of tolerance, some users have to keep increasing their dose to get the same hit or to just try and feel normal again.

Its delayed effect, which can take 2-3 hours, compounds its dangers by inviting the inexperienced user to re-dose. Phenazepam is a highly dangerous drug which has become a popular alternative to street drugs. U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said, “Selling dangerous drugs is a potentially deadly business whether you do it in person, or via the Internet. Flualprazolam was reported with relatively high frequency in forensic investigation cases both in the United States and in Scandinavian countries 32,33; mixed drug ingestions accounted for the majority of bad outcomes. Blood samples from nine fatal cases detected flualprazolam, but the cases involved multiple drugs, and none of the deaths could be attributed to flualprazolam . Fifty-four cases involved drug combinations, and 83 cases detected phenazepam, but this was not the cause of death 21–30.

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Unfortunately, phenazepam can be found on the illicit drug market in the United States. New drugs can and will be produced. However, banning drugs of a chemical class not yet discovered is legally very difficult. Some states have legislated a ban on particular classes of drugs, so that not-yet-created versions of older, toxic drugs will not themselves be legal. One such drug was MPTP, an adulterant of a "designer drug" hallucinogen whose users went on to a rapid and very ugly version of Parkinson's disease.
The high dose and prolonged use of Naproxen gave her stomach ulcers and made her stomach bleed. Alice had right knee pain and took over-the-counter Naproxen (Aleve)—two tablets, twice a day for two months. Side effects can last for days and sometimes weeks. An overdose can quickly lead to loss of bowel control, respiratory depression, coma and death. Phenazepam is a benzodiazepine drug related to Valium but many times stronger.
1 Adinazolam
- The effects of phenazepam can take several hours to develop, so it's essential not to re-dose.
- There was a new discussion about its fate on April 23, 2012, where it was decided that the bill would be rewritten and phenazepam would still be banned.
- Upon clinical examination, the patient was anxious, but the anxiety resolved, and the patient was discharged the same day .
- The onset of symptomatology happens in minutes, and effects may last 5-10 hours and after-effects for hours .
- A low dose is mg, a typical dose is mg whilst a strong effect is experienced with mg or more .
The same study notes that despite reports of “unpleasantness” the participants of the study rated the substance of high “street value”, capable of producing “physical and mental highness” according to the Addiction Research Criteria Inventory (ARCI) . Ataxia, dysarthria, weakness, diminished reflexes, confusion, coma and a paradoxical excitement in children have been reported, in addition to signs of overdose . Symptomatology occurs in minutes, with effects lasting 6-10 hours and after-effects for 1-12 hours .
Side Effects
In December 2014, four-round, light-brown tablets marked as ‘nifoxipam 1 mg’ were sent from the UK to Finland where they were seized and nifoxipam was analytically confirmed by GC-MS and LC-MS/MS analysis 9, 10. The substance was analytically confirmed by GC-MS, LC-MS (liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry) and NMR analysis by the Swedish National Laboratory of Forensic Sciences 69, 79. Nifoxipam is not currently controlled under the 1971 United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances or the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.
Dosage (Posology) And Method Of Administration
There are no clinically significant anecdotal reports from psychonaut fora describing the clinical effects of methylclonazepam so far. Furthermore, it has also been reported to exert both facilitative and depressive effects on paradoxical sleep in cats, depending on the dose . There are no clinically significant anecdotal reports from psychonaut fora describing the clinical effects of thionordazepam so far. Therefore, it has been supposed to possess similar pharmacological and toxicological properties to flunitrazepam (i.e., hypnotic and pre-anesthetic effects) . It has been reported that metizolam causes effects similar to etizolam, even though it is half as potent and with around a 60% longer t ½ . The Danish National Focal Point reported a seizure of 55 blue round tablets containing metizolam on the 30 October 2015 by Danish Customs and related to a package sent from the UK to a private address in Denmark .
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Recently, University of Dundee forensic pathologist Richard Maskell and his group found phenazepam in 9 people dead from overdose. If you or someone else needs urgent help after taking drugs or drinking, call 999 for an ambulance. If the police catch people supplying illegal drugs in a home, club, bar or hostel, they can potentially prosecute the landlord, club owner or any other person concerned in the management of the premises.

Overall, some of the new BZDs have been historically approved and marketed for use in some countries (i.e., phenazepam); whilst others have been previously investigated and may be found in some patent literature but subsequently not marketed; finally, the remaining ones represent completely new compounds . Some new BZDs were sold as tablets, capsules or powders under their own names, marketed as ‘legal’ versions of authorised medicines. So far, 29 NPS belonging to the BZD class have been reported by the Member States to the UNODC Early Warning Advisory (EWA), of which 23 were firstly detected in Europe during the last 5 years . In fact, by the end of 2018, EMCDDA monitored more than 730 NPS, of which 55 were reported for the first time in Europe in 2018, of which around 5% belonging to the BZD class .
Like other benzodiazepines, phenazepam can be used as a chill-out drug. In Russia, phenazepam is a controlled substance since March 22, 2021. As of October 2015, phenazepam is a controlled substance in China. When phenazepam addiction occurs, those taking the drug in high doses may suffer from an overdose. Additionally, the drug may be snorted or smoked, greatly increasing the side effects and potential of a fatal overdose.
New York Nurse Sentenced For Selling Unapproved "Party Drug" Phenazepam On The Internet
The substance was identified by the Swedish National Laboratory of Forensic Science (SKL) using GC-MS and NMR analyses 69, 70, 79. From a pharmacokinetic perspective, a plasma t ½ of approximately hours is reported 83, 86. Symptomatology occurs after minutes, effects may last 8-12 hours and after-effects for 1-24 hours . There are several anecdotal reports on psychonauts fora which describe it as “sedative and hypnotic” with similar effects to diazepam, even though “10-fold times more potent and with an intermediate half-life” . Diclazepam was first identified in a sample of tablets analysed by a German university forensic institute in August 2013 69, 70, 72.
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Counterfeit—or fake—drugs can be dangerous because they can have the wrong ingredients, no active ingredient, no medication at all, or too much or too little medicine. According to the official investigation report, effects of phenazepam on pilot Pavel Gruzin may have contributed to errors that caused the crash of Crossair Flight 498. Like all benzodiazepines, it is legally classified as a C-IV substance in accordance with the analogue act in the U.S. (Flunitrazepam, aka "rohypnol", is dually scheduled.) The detection of phenazepam in the blood stream has been demonstrated using gas chromatography (GC), gas chromatography/mass spectrometry(GC/MS), and liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS), but there are no data regarding the sensitivity of available immunoassays.3 It was not until the 2000's that the first reports of phenazepam being used recreationally (or at least outside of a prescription setting) emerged in Western Europe.
Side effects include dizziness, loss of coordination, drowsiness. Phenazepam is a benzodiazepine drug, which was developed in Soviet Union and now produced in Russia and some CIS countries. It is not a scheduled drug here in the United States or in most of Western Europe. As a result, seizures of phenazepam still occasionally take place in the UK . It was originally intended for use in treating psychological problems, but the discovery of its anti-convulsant properties led to it being investigated as a possible epilepsy treatment.
Specific assays for several designer benzodiazepines and their metabolites have only recently been described 20–22, contributing to a lack of exposure and mortality data. This rise of NPS has been particularly prevalent in Europe where the EMCDDA via the European Early Warning System (EU-EWS) is now monitoring over 620 substances, with 20 of these being benzodiazepines (European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, 2017). By investigating and collecting data coming from the literature so far published and the web as well, from pharmacological, toxicological and clinical points of view. Furthermore, designer BZDs may represent a target of interest as well for those subjects who commonly abuse other substances (i.e., opioids, psychostimulants, etc.). However, BZDs can also be misused and/or abused by various substance user groups, mainly in combination with other drugs of abuse (e.g., opioids, psychostimulants, etc.) 152, 215.
Due to these pharmacodynamic properties, tofisopam has been considered as an atypical BZD 178, 183. Moreover, under some circumstances, tofisopam may demonstrate stimulant properties as well 178, 182. In addition, it appears to exert mixed dopamine agonist and antagonist-like properties in several in vivo and in vitro animal tests . Caution is strongly recommended at higher doses, with 2 mg being considered a ‘blackout dose’ . It was also identified in 10 blotters seized by Danish customs at the Copenhagen International Post Office on 25 October 2017 .
There are no further data about clinical, pharmacological or toxicological properties. From a pharmacological point of view, phenazepam is generally more potent than diazepam (5-10-fold) and possesses more severe and persistent side-effects (up to 5 days-3 weeks) by having a long elimination half-life of around 60 hours after ingestion 16, 26, 29-32. In other cases, counterfeiters used these substances to produce ‘fake’ versions of commonly prescribed anti-anxiety drugs, such as diazepam and alprazolam, which were sold directly on the illicit online drug market . This group of drugs includes substances that were tested but not approved as medicines in the pharmaceutical industry or that have been manufactured by modifying the core structure of existing pharmaceutical BZDs 7-9. Furthermore, given the limitation of peer-reviewed data published so far, a nonparticipant multilingual qualitative netnographic study was conducted to obtain further clinical/pharmacological/toxicological data, including psychonauts’ online trip reports.