Antianxiety agents in crime
Antianxiety agents, primarily benzodiazepines, are medications designed to alleviate tension, promote relaxation, and induce drowsiness. While these drugs are prescribed for anxiety-related disorders, their misuse is associated with significant risks, including dependence and criminal behaviors. The illicit use of antianxiety agents has been linked to various forms of criminal activity, including drug-seeking behaviors, sexual assault, and other violent crimes. Notably, some perpetrators exploit these medications to incapacitate victims, reducing their ability to resist during assaults.
Benzodiazepines, such as Valium and Xanax, act on the central nervous system and are classified as controlled substances due to their high potential for abuse. Their intoxicating effects can lead to behavioral disinhibition, increasing the likelihood of aggression, particularly when combined with alcohol. Withdrawal from these drugs can be severe, resulting in symptoms ranging from discomfort to life-threatening seizures. Efforts to combat misuse include monitoring prescription distributions and implementing drug testing in workplaces. Understanding the complexities surrounding antianxiety agents is essential for addressing their role in both legitimate medical treatment and their potential for abuse and criminal implications.
Subject Terms
Antianxiety agents in crime
- DEFINITION: Group of medications that relieve tension, reduce activity, induce relaxation, and produce drowsiness.
- SIGNIFICANCE: The use of antianxiety agents is routinely associated with high risk for dependence and abuse that can be associated with criminal activity, drug-seeking behaviors, and suicide. In addition, sexual predators are increasingly using antianxiety agents to reduce the capacity of their victims to react against assault.
The drugs classified as antianxiety agents are frequently prescribed for patients complaining of tension, muscle strain, sleep problems, panic attacks, and phobias. Among the drugs’ effects are drowsiness, impaired social or occupational functioning, slurred speech, rapid mood changes, and impaired judgment; these effects become more pronounced with increased dosage. Because of the negative impact on occupational functioning that abuse of antianxiety agents can produce, many employment settings have implemented urine testing of employees to screen for these drugs.
Benzodiazepines
The most commonly prescribed antianxiety agents are the benzodiazepines, which are classified as controlled substances by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). These include such drugs as chlordiazepoxide (Librium), diazepam (Valium), alprazolam (Xanax), clonazepam (Klonopin), clorazepate (Tranxene), and lorazepam (Ativan). The benzodiazepines act on the central nervous system and produce intoxication and withdrawal symptoms. These drugs can produce physical and psychological dependence within two to four weeks of usage. The symptoms of withdrawal from antianxiety drugs can range form mild discomfort to severe reactions, including seizures. Some of the common symptoms include weakness, rapid pulse, tremor, insomnia, restlessness, nausea, hallucinations, and irritability. Sudden withdrawal from benzodiazepine dependence can lead to seizures and even death. Detoxification involves a gradual decrease of the drug over a period of weeks. Persons who are addicted to antianxiety medications often respond best to detoxification in residential treatment programs.
In medical practice, the benzodiazepines have replaced the usage of for control of anxiety. Barbiturates were commonly used throughout the early to mid-twentieth century to induce relaxation, promote sleep, and quell tension, but they had a high abuse potential. Common barbiturates include amobarbital (Amytal), phenobarbital (Luminal), pentobarbital (Nembutal), seconbarbital (Seconal), and thiopental (Pentothal). Barbiturate drugs are still common among the chemical substances sold illegally. Colloquially, they are frequently referred to as reds, red devils, yellow jackets, rainbows, downers, phennies, and nembies.
Abuse and Negative Impacts
Although antianxiety agents are legitimately prescribed for the treatment of psychiatric disorders associated with anxiety, a large number of individuals use the drugs illicitly for their mood-altering relaxation effects. Some use only benzodiazepines, but others often use them in conjunction with other controlled substances, including stimulants and hallucinogens, to diminish anxious feelings; some use benzodiazepines with to reduce or with as a way to enhance the euphoric feelings that heroin causes. Benzodiazepine abusers, the majority of whom are under forty years of age, account for approximately one-third of all substance-abuse-related hospital emergency room visits in the United States.
Benzodiazepine intoxication is associated with behavioral disinhibition that can result in heightened physical and sexual aggressiveness, especially when combined with alcohol use. The effects of benzodiazepines are additive to those of alcohol, and in combination the two can lead to respiratory depression that can result in death. In general, when the additive central nervous system depressant effects of alcohol are combined with a benzodiazepine, the results can include excessive sedation, cognitive impairment, and psychomotor slowing. The diagnosis of benzodiazepine intoxication is best confirmed through toxicological analysis of blood or urine samples.
Because of the disinhibition effects of the benzodiazepines, some sexual predators use these drugs to dose intended victims, often by surreptitiously introducing the drugs into liquids the victims are drinking. The drugs can reduce the potential victims’ capacity to react strongly against sexual assault or may even render them unconscious.
In order to prove a charge of a drug-facilitated criminal offense, law-enforcement officials must be able to prove detection of the substance in the victim during commission of the act. Research has shown that the antianxiety agents are detectable in oral fluid, blood, urine, and hair samples of those who ingest the drugs over the course of hours and days. The of benzodiazepine ingestion in hair samples is significant in cases where long delays separate the time of the alleged crimes and the collection of blood and urine samples, which may be of little value after a certain period of time.
State and federal agencies in the United States have carried out a continuing effort to restrict the distribution of benzodiazepines through strict multiple-form reporting of prescriptions for these medications. Some US states have created databases of the names of physicians who prescribe benzodiazepines, as well as the patients who receive the prescriptions, to monitor the distribution of these medications. Requirements for triplicate-form reporting of prescriptions have been found to reduce the use of the benzodiazepines for other than legitimate medical purposes.
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