FRANKFORT, Ky. (Aug. 18, 2025) – Attorney General Russell Coleman is leading a coalition of 21 attorneys general calling on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to take emergency action to schedule a drug so far linked to nearly 50 deaths in Kentucky.
In a letter to DEA Administrator Terry Cole, the attorneys general sounded the alarm on bromazolam, a dangerous and unregulated designer drug often referred to as “designer Xanax.” They outlined safety concerns calling bromazolam “highly potent and unpredictable.” The letter reads in part, “Unlike regulated medications, illicitly manufactured bromazolam lacks any quality controls, making it particularly lethal for unsuspecting users.”
Taking emergency action would help law enforcement remove bromazolam from circulation, give prosecutors the tools to hold traffickers accountable, and send a clear signal it has no place on the streets of America’s neighborhoods.
“Law enforcement desperately needs the tools to drive this dangerous drug from our neighborhoods,” said Attorney General Coleman. “Along with attorneys general from across the country, we’re working with President Trump to support our law enforcement and keep families safe from this poison.”
General Coleman is working to join a growing list of states already taking action to schedule bromazolam. He sent a letter to Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services urging them to use their authority to put bromazolam on the state-level schedule.
The Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force (NKDSF) contacted detectives with the Attorney General’s Department of Criminal Investigations (DCI) about a troubling increase of bromazolam pills flooding the Commonwealth. A Drug Strike Force investigation with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service recently interdicted one parcel containing 958 pills that were later confirmed to be bromazolam.
Attorney General Coleman was joined by attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.
Read the letter here.