Clonazolam exists in a legal gray area in many places, as it was never approved for medical use and is often classified as a designer benzodiazepine. It is often sold illicitly in unregulated doses, increasing overdose risk. Users report deep sedation, memory loss, and blackouts even at low doses, making it significantly more dangerous. A designer benzodiazepine with no recognized medical use. Regular use can quickly lead to tolerance, dependence, and withdrawal symptoms that can be severe or even life-threatening. It can cause deep sedation, memory blackouts, and impaired motor function even at low doses.
Clonazolam Uses and Abuse
Make sure you know how you react to this medicine before you drive, use machines, or do anything else that could be dangerous if you are not alert or able to think or see well. This medicine may cause drowsiness, trouble with thinking, trouble with controlling movements, or trouble with seeing clearly. If you think you have become pregnant while using the medicine, tell your doctor right away. Blood tests may be needed to check for unwanted effects. Store the medicine in a closed container at room temperature, away from heat, moisture, and direct light.
Impaired Judgment
According to NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse), benzodiazepines like Clonazolam are involved in over 12,000 overdose deaths per year, often in combination with opioids. This guide explores the dangers of Clonazolam, how addiction develops, and what effective clonazolam abuse treatment looks like for those ready to take their first step toward recovery. Clonazolam addiction can take hold after just a few uses, causing extreme sedation, blackouts, memory loss, and life-threatening withdrawal symptoms. Using this medicine during the later pregnancy may cause problems in your newborn baby (eg, sedation or withdrawal symptoms).
Does clonazepam interact with foods or drinks?
An addiction to this drug can be life-threatening for several reasons, including accidental overdoses, poor judgment, severe withdrawal symptoms, and more. Acute intoxications and deaths related to DBZD, alone or in combination with other drugs of abuse, were reported in Finland, Germany, Japan, Norway, Poland, Sweden, UK and USA. The effects of a benzodiazepine overdose include sedation, confusion, amnesia, insufficient breathing, loss of consciousness, and death.
- People who are allergic to any of the following should not use clonazepam.
- Appropriate studies performed to date have not demonstrated pediatric-specific problems that would limit the usefulness of clonazepam in children with seizure disorders.
- Even microgram-level doses (less than a grain of salt) can cause severe sedation.
The Dangers of Clonazolam Abuse
It is currently used in India, Italy, Japan and Korea for the short-term treatment of insomnia, anxiety and panic attacks, but it is not approved for medical use elsewhere 55,71. The only death reported involved a young man with a history of methamphetamine use found deceased at home. In the third ED admission, diclazepam was the sole drug reported.
Either employers end up having to quiz legitimate benzodiazepine patients, with the privacy issues that involves, or they end up letting the addict through. This makes it impossible to truly detect clonazolam in screenings. Slurred speech and trouble walking have also been reported. Clonazolam can cause both physical and mental side effects that can last for a few hours. Snorting clonazolam tends to cause extended, often multiple day blackouts.
In the other four cases, clonazolam or clonazolam and etizolam (one case) were identified. Clonazolam is described as “insanely powerful”, producing strong sedation and amnesia at oral doses as low as 0.5 mg, resulting in easy accidental overdose . 6-(2-Chlorophenyl)-1-methyl-8-nitro-4H-1,2,4triazolo4,3-a1,4benzodiazepine, also known as clonitrazolam, is the triazolo-analogue of clonazepam 1,129.
So, it is better to avoid these medicines and alcohol while consuming clonazolam. Clonazolam is a highly potent drug with a narrow therapeutic window, and a higher dose can cause severe sedation and coma. Withdrawal symptoms from benzodiazepines are severe, involving symptoms such as abdominal cramps, anxiety, sweating, tremors, blurred vision, loss of concentration, confusion, and dizziness. High doses of GABAergics, including clonazolam, can cause intoxicating effects similar to alcohol or GHB, as well as memory loss and disinhibition. Clonazolam, which is a derivative of clonazepam and alprazolam, works like other benzodiazepines. Our True Stories of Addiction video series showcases real people who have overcome devastating addictions and built new lives filled with purpose and hope.
Clonazepam (Klonopin): The Euphoric Benzodiazepine
The most commonly abused benzodiazepine medications are , , Ativan, and Klonopin. This is part of what makes the abuse of this substance so dangerous, as people lose track of time and behave in atypical ways. It is a highly potent substance that can cause sedation and amnesia even in small doses. One of the benzodiazepine medications that is not approved for medicinal use is called clonazolam (triazolobenzodiazepine). Benzodiazepines are a class of drugs primarily used to treat anxiety and seizures. Instead, the drug is temporarily replaced with another benzodiazepine, typically Valium, and then the dosage is reduced over time.
Reducing Benzodiazepine Dependence Risk
Two patients were admitted to ED after consuming clonazolam bought on the Internet. It was found for the first time in seized yellow capsules by Swedish police on October 2014 and reported to the EMCDDA on January 2015 . Adinazolam was identified in postmortem blood samples but was neither quantified nor listed as the cause of death. In the US, since April 2020, adinazolam was identified in at least three toxicology cases in association with etizolam, fentanyl and flualprazolam . Adinazolam was never FDA approved and never introduced onto the public market; however, it started to emerge as an illegal designer drug in 2015 126,127. Most patients and victims were young individuals of both sexes, often with a previous history of substance abuse and mental illness.
Your healthcare provider will tell you how to stop clonazepam to reduce the risk of withdrawal reactions. Clonazolam abuse and addiction can lead to physical dependence, withdrawal seizures, and other dangers that require professional treatment. Because clonazolam withdrawal is so intense, many people will go back to taking the drug rather than go through it. Of sixty deaths reported, phenazepam alone was listed as the sole cause of death in two cases, while the remaining were attributed to accidental overdose due to polydrug toxicity. In 33 cases the cause of death was reported as accidental overdose due to polydrug toxicity; subjects were known drug users or had a history of mental disorders. In 49 reports 3-hydroxyphenazepam, adinazolam, clonazolam, etizolam, deschloroetizolam, diclazepam, flualprazolam, flubromazepam, flubromazolam, meclonazepam, phenazepam and pyrazolam were the sole or explicit contributory cause of poisoning, driving-impairment and death.
Both pill and liquid Clonazolam are highly risky, but the liquid form may be even more dangerous due to its rapid onset and unpredictable dosing. Even in states where it is not yet scheduled, possession of Clonazolam can lead to legal consequences under analog drug laws. In the U.S., Clonazolam is not approved for medical use and is often sold illicitly. Extremely potent, with effects much stronger than Clonazepam.
- Adinazolam was never FDA approved and never introduced onto the public market; however, it started to emerge as an illegal designer drug in 2015 126,127.
- All cases had multiple drugs; one was also positive for etizolam.
- Patients exhibited both motor and functional impairment and depressant effects.
- Also, the drug is often mixed with opioids, resulting in a complicated addiction profile with, potentially, multiple physical dependencies that need to be addressed.
How is Clonazolam Addiction Treated?
This registry collects information about the safety of antiepileptic medicines during pregnancy. Clonazepam may interact with other medicines and supplements. Tell your doctor if you have a history of seizures and about any medicines you take for seizures. Clonazepam may increase the risk of or worsen seizures in certain people who have seizures. Tell your healthcare provider if you have a history of a drug or alcohol disorder.
These side effects may go away during treatment as your body adjusts to the medicine. Also, the number of doses you take each day, the time allowed between doses, and the length of time you take the medicine depend on the medical problem for which you are using the medicine. If both medicines are prescribed together, your doctor may change the dose or how often you use one or both of the medicines. When you are taking this medicine, it is especially important that your healthcare professional know if you are taking any of the medicines listed below.
Missed Dose
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Clonazolam is up to 2.5 times stronger than alprazolam what is clonazolam (Xanax) and has been found in hundreds of overdose deaths since 2016. Clonazolam might be one of the most powerful and dangerous designer benzodiazepines ever created. Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. If you notice any other effects, check with your healthcare professional. Also, your health care professional may be able to tell you about ways to prevent or reduce some of these side effects.
Studies show that individuals who complete both medical detox and behavioral therapy have a 60–70% higher chance of maintaining long-term sobriety compared to those who attempt withdrawal alone. Breaking free from Clonazolam addiction requires professional help and a carefully managed treatment plan. The sedative effects can last 12 to 20 hours, and users may not remember taking it — leading to repeated doses and accidental overdose. Clonazolam addiction is particularly dangerous because of the drug’s long half-life and high potency. Like other benzodiazepines, Clonazolam alters the brain’s chemical balance, creating dependency quickly.
Due to the high abuse potential and life-threating consequences of DBZD use, between 2020 and 2021 clonazolam, diclazepam, etizolam, flualprazolam and flubromazolam were listed in Schedule IV of the Convention of Psychotropic Substances of 1971 . In 2020 amid shortages of classic drugs of abuse following COVID-19 restrictions, some drug users shifted from prescription sedatives to DBZD and novel synthetic opioids (NSO) 63,64,65,66. They are not strictly considered DBZD since they are approved for medical use in certain countries, but they have been implicated in several drug-related deaths in the United Kingdom between 2012 and 2013 39,47. These substances are illegally manufactured, sometimes mimic legal medicines’ appearance, and are purchased inexpensively on the underground drug market through online platforms that facilitate anonymous trading and bypass regulatory systems 45,46. Compared with classical BZD, these compounds produce strong sedation and amnesia, and they increase the risk of respiratory depression and death when used in combination with other CNS depressants 41,42. High BZD doses in combination with opioids or other CNS depressants increase the risk of death by suppression of medullary respiratory centers 27,28,29.



