Yeah, absolutely.

This recently happened to someone I knew who was addicted to alcohol, 9 months later they died from a combo of alcohol, Xanax and Fentanyl.

Let me preface this with I'm not a doctor, I also never tried Xanax / Fentanyl and I don't "really" drink alcohol. The air quotes mean I drink about a handful of beers a year at assorted family events and occasionally when socializing. I'm not saying that to brag or be like "look at me, I'm above that!", I just want to paint the picture here that I don't have first hand experience on how easily it is to get addicted to this stuff, know what it feels like or how hard it must be to quit.

Anyways, here's 1 potential formula for how someone ends up dying after being prescribed Xanax when a doctor knows the patient has addictive behaviors and drinks a lot:

1. They're addicted to alcohol to the point where they feel compelled to drink very often. Not just a beer a day, but more like lots and lots of Vodka.

2. They try going to rehab multiple times and it fails every time within a month or 2 after returning.

3. They get prescribed Xanax by a doctor.

4. They have an addictive personality in general and get addicted to Xanax.

5. This helps for a brief amount of time (weeks or months perhaps).

6. They end up drinking again.

7. They very quickly discover drinking while taking Xanax has a whole new effect.

8. They run out of prescribed Xanax.

9. They attempt to find it on the street and do.

10. They enter a world of street drugs and now Xanax turns into Xanax plus Fentanyl (intentional or not, I don't know how it becomes laced, etc.).

11. They do this combo for a bit and one day they go-to sleep and never wake up from heart failure.

The question I ask myself all the time now is if step 3 didn't happen, would the outcome have been the same? My gut tells me no way, being introduced to Xanax started the chain of events that lead to death.