"You don't have to take a handful of them," Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told WFLA. "All you gotta do is take one, and you're dead."

Gualtieri calls the spread of the drug – which apparently is found only in Pinellas County and sells for $5 a pill – a public health emergency. It has killed nine people recently, including a 25-year-old woman in Dunedin earlier this month, according to WFLA.

"People need to immediately stop buying Xanax on the street because their life literally depends on it," Gualtieri told WTVT.

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Thousands of "No Kings" protesters marched down Courtland Street from the Atlanta Civic Center to Liberty Plaza on Saturday. (Abbey Cutrer/AJC)

Credit: Abbey Cutrer