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Street scene in Kensington, Philadelphia, USA
Photo: Anadolu Agency / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Xylazine is odorless and almost tasteless and is used in horses and cattle to calm and relax people as well as to relieve pain, and in cats as an emetic.
At some point, dealers came up with the idea of mixing the substance into street drugs as a cheap substitute for heroin.
It was said to have been tried out in Puerto Rico in 2005, but now the New York Times is reporting that the mix has reached junkies in the USA: it is sold under street names such as "Tranq", "Tranq-Dope" or "Zombie Drug". Xylazine used to cut fentanyl.
For example, in Philadelphia, where the hotspot Kensington has a high Puerto Rican population, more than 90 percent of lab-tested drug samples contained xylazine.
In New York, the substance was found in 25 percent of the samples, with possibly a higher number of unreported cases, the newspaper writes.
The effect is devastating - on several levels.
Xylazine causes painful sores resembling chemical burns at the injection site, but also on other parts of the body.
They weep, itch and burn, if left untreated they can begin to rot, in the worst case limbs may have to be amputated.
(The New York Times features gruesome images in its article.)
Xylazine leads to hours of blackout after consumption, during which users are unable to defend themselves against rape or robbery.
By the time people regain consciousness, the high from fentanyl will have worn off and they'll be wanting more.
Xylazine is a tranquilizer and not an opioid.
The naloxone used in an opioid overdose helps against fentanyl, for example, but not against xylazine sedation.
Withdrawal from xylazine is described as being harder than that from opioids, and patients quickly resort to narcotics again.
There is no medical protocol for handling it yet.
The problem is: Tranq-Dope is cheaper than pure opioid.
First heroin was replaced by the cheaper and more effective fentanyl, now Tranq replaces the fentanyl.
According to the New York Times, a bag of heroin costs about $10, and Tranq-Dope can be had for half that.
more on the subject
Drug report by the federal government: Significantly more deaths from opiates and amphetamines
131 dead are younger than 22 years: the number of young drug-related deaths has more than doubled
And it's on the rise, with dire consequences: During 2010-2015, xylazine was involved in just 2 percent of overdose deaths in Philadelphia.
In 2019 it was already 31 percent, according to a study.
Xylazine was developed in 1962 as an anesthetic for veterinary procedures.
Trials on humans were stopped due to excessive side effects.
It is a common tranquilizer in the veterinary field.
In equestrian sports, however, it is prohibited as a doping agent.
There is alarm in the US: In November, the Food and Drug Administration issued a nationwide four-page xylazine warning for medical professionals.
While there is extensive research on the effects of opioids on the human organism, there is almost no research on xylazine.
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