“While many Americans tended to see benzos as harmless chill pills that even old folks used, the number of benzodiazepine overdoses rose by a factor of nearly eight between 1999 and 2015. And they have been a factor in more than a third of recent fatal opioid overdoses … Worse, even when taken daily as prescribed, they can lead to dependence and, in some patients, a lengthy and vicious withdrawal syndrome.” Vice: This Is Why Xanax Is Blowing Up in America.