London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Sep 22, 2025

Surge in use of fake anti-anxiety drugs and sedatives during lockdown

The sale of fake anti-anxiety medications known to cause severe illness or death has surged during lockdown.
Health officials have issued an alert over a number of illicit drugs that can increase suicidal thoughts and have potentially fatal consequences, especially when taken in conjunction with alcohol and certain painkillers.

Public Health England (PHE) said the bootlegged sedatives were being marketed as legitimate anti-anxiety medications commonly prescribed by doctors on the NHS.

It said evidence linked to toxicology results from recent hospital admissions and deaths, as well as from seized caches of the tablets, shows that the counterfeit drugs were causing harm.

Drug research charity Release said it is still unclear where the illegal drugs are coming from, but that many are being supplied to dealers via the dark web. It found that users are still primarily relying on face-to-face transactions to obtain the drugs and that some of the surge was being driven by people who are normally dependent on heroin.

PHE advised users to watch out for a tablet with ‘DAN 5620′ on one side and ’10’ on the other, as well as one marked ‘T-20’, ‘TEM 20’, ‘Bensedin’ and ‘MSJ’.

It said most of the dangerous tablets, sometimes referred to as ‘street benzos’, are blue but may come in other colours and may stain people’s mouths.

Often they have been packaged in blister packs or proper pharmacy tubs to make them appear legitimate, and may claim to contain a certain dose of approved drugs, such as diazepam.

In reality, they may not contain any genuine medicines and will instead have high-potency illicit benzodiazepines or another non-medical substance.

The strength of street benzos can vary widely, putting the user at risk of overdose as they have no reliable measure of their intake.

Benzodiazepines impact brain activity and slow the central nervous system, which affects breathing. They are even more dangerous when used with other substances that have the same effect, such as heroin and other opioids, as well as epilepsy medication and painkiller gabapentinoids.

Release’s executive director, Niamh Eastwood, said many herion users lost their income during lockdown and have turned to cheaper alternatives.

‘One of the drivers of the increase, in the early part of lockdown was that heroin users lost income and couldn’t buy it so shifted to benzos which are significantly cheaper,’ she said.

This was exacerbated by the bust of the ‘EncroChat’ crime network, which saw over 700 arrests and had also significantly disrupted the heroin market, causing many to switch to benzos.

Director of charity DrugWise, arry Shapiro, said the distribution of the drugs in industry-standard packaging allowed some dealers to convince buyers they were genuine medicines that had found their way onto the black market.

‘If you make something look legitimate people then either believe that it is or con themselves into believing that it is until they find out otherwise,’ he said.

PHE warned the drugs also impact mental health and can increase suicidal thoughts, particularly in young adults and people with alcohol or opioid addiction.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Explosive Email Shows Sarah Ferguson Begged Forgiveness from Jeffrey Epstein After Taking His Money
Corrupt UK Politician Ed Davey Demands Elon Musk’s Arrest for Supporting Democracy
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
Alibaba Debuts Open-Source Deep Research Agent with Benchmarks Rivaling OpenAI
Marcos Faces Legacy-Defining Crisis as Flood Projects Scandal Sparks Massive Tide of Protests
China’s Micro-Drama Boom Turns Stalled Real Estate Projects into Lavish Film Sets
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
'Company Got 5,189 H-1B Visas, Then Laid Off 16,000 Americans': US Defends New $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee
Golf legend tells Omar she should be 'sent back to Somalia' after her Kirk comments
EU Set to Bar Big Tech from New Financial Data Access Scheme
China Bans Livestreaming and AI in Religion Amid Crackdown on Shaolin Temple Scandal
Documents Reveal Mandelson Failed to Declare Epstein-Funded Flights as MP in 2003
Dubai Property Boom Shows Strain as Flippers Get Buyer’s Remorse
Harris Memoir Sparks Backlash from Democrats for Blunt Critiques in ‘107 Days’
Germany Weighs Excluding France from Key European Fighter Jet Programme
Cyberattack Disrupts Check-in and Boarding Systems at Major European Airports
Japan’s ‘Death-Tainted’ Homes Gain Appeal as Prices Soar in Tokyo
Massive Attack Withdraws from Spotify Over Daniel Ek’s €600M Defence-AI Investment
Björn Borg Breaks Silence: Memoir Reveals Addiction, Shame and Cancer Battle
When Extremism Hijacks Idealism: How the Baader-Meinhof Gang Emerged and Fell
Top AI Researchers Are Heading Back to China as U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace
JWST Data Brings TRAPPIST-1e Closer to Earth-Like Habitability
Trump Orders Third Lethal Strike on Drug-Trafficking Vessel as U.S. Expands Maritime Counter-Narcotics Operations
Trump Orders $100,000 Fee on H-1B Visas and Launches ‘Gold Card’ Immigration Pathway
Why Google Search Is Fading and AI Is Taking Its Place
UAE-US Stargate Project Poised to Make Abu Dhabi a Global AI Powerhouse
Federal Judge Dismisses Trump’s Fifteen-Billion-Dollar Suit Against New York Times, Orders Refile
France’s Looming Budget Crisis and Political Fracture Raise Fears of Becoming Europe’s “Sick Man”
Three Russian MiG-31 Jets Breach Estonian Airspace in ‘Unprecedentedly Brazen’ NATO Incident
DeepSeek Claims R1 Model Trained for only $294,000, Sparking Global Debate Over China’s AI Capabilities
SoftBank Vision Fund to Cut Nearly Twenty Percent of Staff in Bold AI Strategy Shift
Intel’s Next-Gen Manufacturing Gets a Lifeline from Nvidia’s Strategic $5B Deal
Erika Kirk Elected CEO of Turning Point USA After Husband Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
×