One of the addictive kingpins of the (p)harma-quackery industry and the corrupto FDA are benzodiazepines (aka benzos), such as Valium Halcion, Klonopin and Xanax. Pill pusher “physicians” are prescribing these toxins as catchall drugs for the ailments “anxiety” and insomnia. Prescriptions written for five of the most commonly prescribed benzodiazepines — alprazolam, clonazepam, diazepam, lorazepam and temazepam — totaled over 126 million, according to data reported by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Growing numbers of the sheeple and pajama people are also using these drugs for pain. The drugs are so effective at inducing “sleep” that abusers fail to wake up. Benzos are highly addictive and can be fatal, especially when combined with alcohol or opioids — two more widely abused substances.

In the latest sign of the drug’s impact, the number of overdose deaths involving “benzos” rose from 0.54 per 100,000 in 1999 to 5.02 per 100,000 in 2017 among women between the ages of 30 and 64, researchers report Jan. 11, 2019, in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. That’s a spike of 830 percent, surpassed only by increases seen in overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids or heroin.

Large parts of the U.S. population are polysubstance ingesters. The enabling quack profession of malpracticing “doctors” are prescribing benzos and opioids in tandem. Opioids contribute to 75 percent of overdose deaths involving benzos.

Two harmaceuticals played a part in most of the cases, either alone or with other substances. Nearly 47 percent of E.R. visits involve misuse of benzodiazepines [SN: 2/16/19, p. 12], while prescription opioids [SN: 9/2/17, p. 5] were implicated in 36 percent.

Of the total cases showing up in emergency rooms, 53 percent also involved at least one other substance, such as alcohol or illicit drugs like cocaine, heroin and meth. Close to a quarter of the total estimated ER visits were cases in which patients were unresponsive, had stopped breathing or had suffered cardiac arrest, signs of a severe overdose, researchers report.

The misuse of prescription drugs and over-the-counter medications resulted in an estimated 358,000 trips to U.S. emergency departments in 2016 — and almost half of those cases involved young people ages 15 to 34, according to a new study reported online March 6, 2019, in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The study was based on data reported by a nationally representative sample of 56 hospitals during 2016.

Many young adults are underinsured or do not have a primary care physician. Nonetheless, the drug is so widespread because of the “pill for every ill” culture that they find ways to locate it for self-medication.

Alcohol, in turn, is a vicious cycle of self-medicating to counter benzo and opioid withdrawal. Ironically, benzos are prescribed for alcohol detox. They like to keep addicts coming and going. This is the medical “science and research” aka scientism that the plebs are supposed to without question bow down and worship. Perhaps there more to the spiritual side of human beings and these destructive addictions = than the scientists who have brought us these substances realize.

Benzo withdrawal symptoms are nasty and difficult. Any anxiety the individual was dealing with before exposure to this drug is amplified.

Just as alarming is the huge uptick in the number of synthetic benzodiazepines being imported and used in the U.S., or produced by dealers within the U.S. The user will buy it from a vendor on a Darknet market, or they will buy it on the street from a dealer making the pills themselves.

People involved in the distribution of these street drugs will normally purchase the benzo powder through an online source (either the Darknet or indexed web). They use a pill machine and binder to produce pills for their customers.

These designer drugs don’t use good controls, nor do they come with user instructions. Anybody who thinks they can tweak or calibrate benzo street drugs is deluding themselves.

Beyond the deaths and E.R. visits, here is a list of benzos’ affects:

Winter Watch Takeaway: Avoid these harmas like the plague. Be very cautious toward doctors who prescribe them. The number of predatory and incompetent physicians can’t be underestimated.

Curcumin (tumeric) combined with black pepper is the product of choice for pain and anti-inflammation. For sleep, lavender oil has a soothing effect. Take a tablet of spirulina, chlorella and hop cone extract as a sleep aid. Thai massage will help what ails you. Increasingly this author has become a substance teetotaler- and I know longer consider that word a pejorative.