The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is warning the public about two emerging deadly drugs—nitazenes and bromazolam—increasingly showing up in illicit substances entering the United States.
Nitazenes are synthetic opioids similar to fentanyl but can be just as potent, or even stronger, according to the DEA. Emily’s Hope has previously reported on the sharp rise in nitazene-related deaths. The DEA identified just 18 reports of nitazenes from 1999 to 2004, and then none for the next 15 years. Since 2019, however, more than seven thousand reports have surfaced—an alarming surge for a drug that can be 10 to 40 times more potent than fentanyl.
Bromazolam, sometimes referred to as “designer Xanax,” is also becoming more common in the U.S. drug supply. The DEA says the drug is often used as the active ingredient in counterfeit Xanax tablets and is largely being sourced through overseas vendors, primarily chemical suppliers based in China and India offering kilogram quantities of bromazolam powder online. Unlike most benzodiazepines, which are Schedule IV medications used to treat anxiety and insomnia, bromazolam is not specifically controlled in the United States. In 2024, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended that it be added to the list of substances regulated under the 1988 United Nations drug convention.
More than 1,400 DEA drug exhibits seized between January 2019 and January 2025 contained bromazolam, with over a thousand of those in tablet form.
Bromazolam has never been approved for medical use in the United States or any other country.
