Fake pressed Xanax bars are very common on street corners around the world. A counterfeit medication or a counterfeit drug is a medication or pharmaceutical item which is produced and sold with the intent to deceptively represent its origin, authenticity or effectiveness. Xanax is a powerful benzodiazepine that is often prescribed to treat generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorders and insomnia. It is extremely addictive when used long-term. Xanax is the number one prescribed psychiatric medication in the United States. Seventy percent of teens with a Xanax addiction get the drug from their family’s medicine cabinet.
Tolerance to Xanax develops quickly, requiring the user to take more of the drug to achieve the desired effects. Someone with a Xanax addiction may take up to 20 to 30 pills per day. If the user decides to stop taking Xanax, they may experience withdrawal effects, such as anxiety, restlessness, insomnia, and tremors.
Majority of the Xanax sold online and on the streets are fake. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently secured the conviction of a former Urbana-Champaign doctoral student after pleading guilty to manufacturing and selling at least 4.3 million counterfeit Xanax pills. The convict shipped out the pills, which were made in his garage, in quantities of one thousand up to a million per package. More recently, drug dealers are lacing Xanax with deadly Opioid known as fentanyl. Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid analgesic that is similar to morphine but is 50 to 100 times more potent. Fentanyl is much stronger than most other opioids and is very dangerous if misused. Even a small amount can cause an overdose and death.
Why Fentayl Laced Xanax Kills Quickly
Pure fentanyl powder is very difficult to dilute appropriately, often resulting in a dangerously strong mixture; it can be deadly even for people who have a high opioid tolerance. In some cases, death occurs so quickly that users are found with the drug paraphernalia. The minimum lethal dosage of Fentanyl is estimated to be 250 ug (micrograms). Many fatal overdoses thought to be from heroin are actually due to fentanyl; coroners’ offices and state crime laboratories do not test for fentanyl or its analogs unless given a specific reason to do so.
The FDA issued a public health advisory to alert patients, their caregivers, and healthcare professionals that deaths and overdoses have occurred in patients. Children are at particular risk for accidental death from exposure. Although fentanyl overdoses can be reversed with naloxone, because of the high potency of non-pharmaceutical fentanyl, higher or multiple doses of naloxone may be required to revive an individual. Fentanyl is an extremely potent opioid that offers significant pain relief to those who suffer from severe acute or chronic pain conditions but is also capable of causing considerable harm or death to individuals who misuse or are accidentally exposed.
How To Spot Fake White Xanax Bars
As a consumer, you may not have access to most of the test equipment used by regulatory bodies to verify the identity of a drug product. The following tips will serve as a guide to purchasing genuine white Xanax Bars.
- Visual inspection
Visual inspection as stated by the World Health Organization (WHO) (1999) still remains the first step in identifying potential fake drug irrespective of the analytical methods used. This is because such observation serves as a lead to identifying fake products even in the absence of the knowledge of the physical characteristics of a genuine drug product. You are expected to examine carefully both the package and its content before purchase or use.
a. Visual inspection of the Package
You should
Examine the package and check if it appears suspicious or different from what you previously know.
Check if the security seal has been tampered with by looking for breaks or tears in the sealing tape and seals.
Look for unusual fonts, font sizes, print colour, and spelling errors.
Check the legibility of the information on both the primary and secondary packages.
Check if the batch number, expiry date and manufacturer’s address on the secondary package are the same with that on the primary package.
Check if the manufacturer’s address is traceable, that is, if it contains the exact location of the company and not just the country address.
Check if the registration number (FDA number as the case is for products marketed or sold in United States) is properly printed or if it appears to be tampered with.
b. Visual inspection of the Dosage form
At this stage, you are meant to:
Check for differences in the physical appearance (color uniformity, size, shape, consistency etc.) of the drug. As stated by WHO, commonly encountered physical defects that should be looked out for in tablets include:
Excessive powder and/or pieces of tablets at the bottom of the container (from abraded, crushed or broken tablets);
Cracks or chips in the tablets, swelling, mottling, discoloration, fusion of tablets;
Appearance of crystal on the walls of the container or on the tablet.
Hardening or softening, cracking, swelling, mottling or discoloration of capsule shell should also be looked out for.
Also check the organoleptic properties of the dosage form if you have been using the medication.
- Source
The source of the drug also determines if you are buying a fake pressed Xanax bars or not. Buying Mexican Xanax exposes you to a lot of risk. Filling your prescription in a reputable pharmacy greatly reduces your chances of buying fake drugs while buying from illiterate and unqualified vendors who hawk drugs in buses, motor parks and in the streets increases your chances of buying fake drugs.
- Price
This is another way of identifying fake white Xanax. If the price is far cheaper than what is expected, then you have to think twice. However, this may not always be true especially for some products (fake innovator/generic brands) which may be sold at the same price as the genuine one.
- Unexpected side effect
Counterfeit White Xanax most of the time contains substances other than the appropriate Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API). They may contain incorrect substances, improper dosage or hazardous substances like Fentanyl which produce unusual side effects, worsening medical condition after taking it. The medication should be stopped once any of the above is noticed.
5. Fentanyl Test
Fentanyl testing is one of the most reliable ways of telling a fake from a real white Xanax. A new University of Maryland study found Fentanyl tops the list of drugs detected in overdose patients at two Baltimore hospital emergency departments. The finding suggests that hospitals and medical systems throughout the United States consider adding Fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid linked to most fatal overdoses in Maryland, to their routine drug testing panels. That is the conclusion of researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) and the Center for Substance Abuse Research (CESAR) at the University of Maryland, College Park. Currently, fentanyl is not routinely included in these panels nationwide. The procedure described below can help law enforcement agents and public health officials to pick out fentanyl laced powders and pills .
Steps
- Crush pill or pour powder into a clean bowl or test tube
- Add ¼ inch of clean water to the powder in the tube or bowl and mix properly
- Dip the end of the test strip into the residue for 15 seconds, remove, and lay on a clean flat surface
- Check strip after 5 minutes, (manufacturer’s directions) results may be visible sooner: One line means fentanyl (positive) Two lines means no fentanyl (negative) * If the strip does not either have one or two lines, the test is invalid. SEE: How to Spot Fake Blue B707 Xanax Bars