The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration issued a temporary order, effective 16 March 2026, placing bromazolam into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. The order was published in the Federal Register (a technical correction followed on 24 June 2026) and uses the emergency-scheduling mechanism reserved for substances judged to pose an imminent hazard to public safety. The temporary placement lasts up to two years, until 16 March 2028, during which the DEA and HHS can pursue permanent scheduling.
Bromazolam (8-bromo-1-methyl-6-phenyl-4H-benzo[f][1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-a][1,4]diazepine) is a triazolobenzodiazepine structurally related to alprazolam. It was first described in the scientific literature in the 1970s but was never marketed as a medicine; it re-emerged in the unregulated 'research chemical' and counterfeit-pill supply, where it is frequently pressed into tablets made to resemble alprazolam (Xanax) bars.
The DEA cited its rising prevalence in forensic casework. In the fourth quarter of 2025, bromazolam appeared in 145 toxicology samples analyzed through federal systems — far more than the next-most-common novel benzodiazepine, desalkylgidazepam, at 39. The agency also noted that bromazolam was detected in at least 201 overdose deaths between April 2021 and February 2026, though the large majority of those cases also involved fentanyl and only four were attributed to bromazolam alone.
As a designer benzodiazepine, bromazolam produces sedative, anxiolytic and amnestic effects through the same GABA-A mechanism as prescription benzodiazepines, and shares their risks of dependence, tolerance and dangerous additive respiratory depression when combined with opioids. Because it is not an opioid, its sedation is not reversed by naloxone. Schedule I placement designates it as having no accepted medical use and a high abuse potential, and makes possession, distribution and manufacture federal offenses.