The 'clonazepam challenge': a TikTok challenge causes the poisoning of eight minors in schools in Mexico

Videos of three young people on Tik Tok talking about clonazepam.RR SS

The “clonazepam challenge” or “whoever sleeps last wins”, a challenge that has gone viral on TikTok, has alerted the authorities in Mexico City since early January, when they warned of the danger of following this type of trend. "that put at risk" the lives of minors.

In the last 48 hours, eight Mexican students (five in the capital and three from Nuevo León) have been poisoned in their respective schools with anxiolytics, drugs with tranquilizing effects that require a prescription.

The authorities present the challenge as a fight against the effects of tranquilizing drugs from anxiolytics.

Young people introduce anxiolytics to school, take them and wait for their effects to take place.

The winner of the challenge, as its name indicates, is the last one to fall asleep.

The trend exposed by the authorities has reached several places in the Mexican territory.

In Mexico City, the paramedics of the Rescue and Emergency Medical Squad (ERUM) treated eight students this Thursday at the Francisco I. Madero school, in the San Rafael neighborhood.

Of them, a "possible poisoning" has been confirmed in five of them, of which three have been hospitalized preventively.

Authorities have reported that the minors are stable.

In San Nicolás de los Garza, a municipality in Nuevo León, the challenge was carried out this time by three students from the Juventino Rosas school.

The result: the three minors ended up intoxicated by the consumption of anxiolytics.

The viral challenge has reached other states in Mexico since the beginning of January.

On the 9th, seven students from a Veracruz school also became intoxicated after consuming this type of drug.

The state governor, Cuitláhuac García, reported that the youths were in possession of 30 clonazepam pills, and announced that the Executive would investigate the situation to punish those responsible.

The Cybernetic Police of Mexico City, in charge of monitoring and carrying out "patrols" through the Internet, informed at the beginning of the month of the risk of carrying out this and other challenges disseminated on the Internet.

In 2022, the authority identified around 500 incidents derived from this type of challenge that affected Mexican minors.

Despite the fact that the warnings have been repeated by the different authorities, this newspaper has not found

with the characteristics described by the Cyber ​​Police.

Despite this, the hashtag “clonazepam” (

), has 82 million views.

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