SF health officials warn of lethal, fake ‘Xanax’ circulating city streets

As for the fake Xanax, the Health Department says it’s been supplying needle exchange and drug treatment clinics with supplies of Noloxone, an antidote with can combat Fentanyl. While these patients all thought they were buying Xanax, it turns out that the pills they purchased all contained an extremely strong chemical known as fentanyl. Today’s incident involved a drug that is not even “illegal” and yet it was super scary to see how it impacted the student users. The students said they took Xanax, but doctors don’t know yet if those were real or fake pills. According to an announcement made on Pinole Valley High School’s website, the students are recovering and will be sent to the school’s Health Center upon their return. According to reports, several of Pinole’s school teachers witnessed their students stumbling around the school’s hallways as if they were intoxicated.

The school is using this incident as an opportunity for parents and faculty to educate their students about the dangers of drug use.

One person has died and three others were hospitalized after taking the fake Xanax.

“We know there is a risky counterfeit drug being sold on the street as ‘Xanax, ‘ and people should be very careful and avoid the risk of overdose and death”, Dr. Tomás Aragón, San Francisco’s health officer, said in a statement. Health Department officials said all three suffered sedation, weakness in extremities, muscle breakdown and fluid in lungs, as complications of opioid overdose. A fourth person in possession of the pills was found dead, although authorities haven’t yet determined a cause of death.

And, as such, Aragon advises, “Under no circumstances should you accept medication from someone else, or purchase prescription medicine on the street”.

The Contra Costa County Health Department said as of Friday afternoon, they haven’t tested the Xanax pills the students at Pinole Valley High took. School officials called for an ambulance and police.

Five students who attend two high schools in Marin County have been hospitalized in the last two weeks because of overdosing on cough medication, a school administrator told NBC Bay Area on Wednesday.