I was just sort of following it happen and you're sort of watching a sort of soap opera of drug dealing

on fault in real time. I'm Mave McClenigan and this is the tip-off. If I've learnt one thing

from making this podcast, it's that inspiration for investigations comes in many forms.

Tip-offs can happen when you least expect it,

but I've never come across a story that started quite like this.

I'm Ben Bryant, and I'm a senior writer and producer for BBC 3.

The investigation started, as so many investigations don't, at a party. It was February 2017 and I was at a house

party at just a friend's house. Out to the corner of his eye, Ben spotted some guys he didn't know.

Just some skateboarders who were there who were offering Sanax, three for 10 pounds, which was weird

because I'd never been offered

Xanax before. And also, I just didn't think it was a party drug. Ben had heard of Xanax before,

but only from US TV shows. Americans love convenience, right? Xanax is part of that trend. It can

also be extremely addictive. How great is it that I started Xanax yesterday.

It has been a Xanax explosion that's become a popular recreational drug.

But unfortunately for the rest of these schmucks, they have a lifetime of anxiety had none of Xanax to go around.

Oh, then I take a Xanax and it's all okay. Just Xanax. All the bad thoughts away. That's what my plan is. But here it was being offered around a house party in my brain.

But here it was being offered around a house party in London.

So it sort of set some cogs wearing in my brain, I think, basically.

A few months passed, and Ben had just started out working freelance

after leaving his last job as investigations reporter

at Vice UK.

He'd spotted this government report that had been released late the year before.

...