I think it's actually legal to buy shit that's chemically dissimilar from barb. acid which end up at some stage turning into the desirable BA. Unless you know where to get them, like know now who has them in their possession, you're not going to have much luck finding good old barbituates. Not street, too dangerous for hippies(anything you'll find will be phenobarbital, plenty available still) and require import or someone at caltech's weekend to create. xanax is something thousands of pills aren't unheard of as a yearly consumption level for a person abusing them, thousands of talibutal, tuinal, desbutal, whatever big, abuse-ridden pill of choice isn't going to be pretty.