"Zombie drug" rolls over Los Angeles – it causes skin and muscles to rot

The "zombie drug" xylazine, also known as "tranq", is flooding the drug market in the United States. Now Los Angeles is also severely affected.

Los Angeles – L.A. is battling a new "zombie drug." In the west coast metropolis of Los Angeles in the USA, the drug "Tranq" with the active ingredient xylazine causes frightening images. Consumers inject themselves with the substance. Untreated puncture sites can cause skin and muscles to rot. According to police officers, the spread of the drug, which drops its users into a catatonic, zombie-like state, has escalated. For this reason, the authorities in L.A. In mid-April, a program to determine the extent of the problem.

Los Angeles/USA: "Tranq" found in other illegal drugs

"It's really disfiguring people in a cruel way," Bill Bodner, special agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration, told KTLA. It is also "likely that someone will stop breathing" due to the drug. When you inject it, "it actually reduces blood circulation."

The Los Angeles County Department of Health in California and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) have issued warnings about the spread of xylazine – a sedative for animals. In a crime laboratory, "Tranq" was found in other illegal drugs such as fentanyl, which were seized by the authorities in Los Angeles. "In the greater Los Angeles area, we see xylazine as an additive in counterfeit fentanyl pills," said DEA LA Field Division spokeswoman Nicole Nishida. Although other cities are even more severely affected, the Trand is "worrying."

Animal sedative xylazine as a drug - "Makes fentanyl even more deadly"

Xylazine is actually classified as legal by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) – but is only intended for use in animals such as horses. For humans, however, it is unsafe. In addition, xylazine is often mixed with fentanyl and other illegal drugs, enhancing their potentially lethal effects. What's even more worrying, he said, is that Narcan — a drug that reverses an opioid overdose — doesn't reverse a xylazine overdose.

Xylazine makes "the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, fentanyl, even more deadly," said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram. Fear is also rampant in Spain: there are increasing reports in Spain that women are being pricked with needles, especially from discotheques.

Statistics show that the number of deaths from xylazine overdose is increasing. For instance, drug overdose deaths related to "Tranq" in Pennsylvania rose from two percent in 2015 to 26 percent in 2020.

Xylazine consumption in the U.S. is rampant: "Only the military can still help"

While the full extent of xylazine use and overdose deaths is unknown, increasing use in L.A. reportedly indicates the rapid spread of the drug in the United States. It's not just the streets of L.A. (and parts of Frankfurt) that are lined with drug users. Recently, YouTuber Tyler Oliveria described the growing xylazine problem in an investigative article about Kensington, Pennsylvania, a region he says is flooded with the drug. Oliveria's video tour of the area shows the streets littered with used needles. Many of his interviewees say that the use of the military is the only way to improve the devastating situation in Kensington.

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In L.A., county officials hope that the new xylazine tracking pilot program will provide much-needed insights into how to combat this new and deadly threat emerging on the streets. (cgsc)