According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, xylazine is a non-opioid tranquilizer used in veterinary medicine which is not approved for human use. However, it has increasingly been used illicitly as an adulterant in combination with other drugs, mostly fentanyl, but also with cocaine, heroin and other drugs, the U.S. The percentage of xylazine-related overdose deaths increased from 2% to 26% from 2015–20 in Pennsylvania. Xylazine was involved in 19% of all drug overdoses in Maryland in 2021 and 10% of drug overdoses in Connecticut in 2020, the NIDA states.

How does stigma stop people from getting treated?

In one study, most deaths due to xylazine overdose were related to injection of the drug. In one case, a 4-year-old boy collapsed after returning home from a nearby playground. He was taken to https://sober-house.org/what-is-a-substance-abuse-counselor-what-they-do/ a hospital, where xylazine was detected in his blood and urine. A police investigation found that the boy’s godfather had injected him with xylazine after he had returned from the playground.

Can I get addicted to xylazine?

As a matter of fact, tranq is now found in up to 15% of fentanyl tests. Xylazine-related skin wounds can include skin infections, wounds below the skin (abscesses) and open, weeping wounds (skin ulcers). Wounds can heal if a person continues to use and receives appropriate medical care.

What happens if someone gets sick after using xylazine?

The Office of Public Health and Safety has partnered with the organization. There are, however, a handful of low-barrier wound care clinics in Kensington, at the epicenter of the xylazine epidemic. These walk-in settings don’t require insurance or payment and welcome people who are still using drugs. However, many of these figures may be an underestimate, as due to xylazine being considered a mostly non-human drug, it is often not tested for during post mortem examinations.

While Housing Works has reported $24 million in sales in its first year, Nutgent said some licensed stores have struggled because of the illicit competitors. They don’t pay the additional taxes that helped legalization become palatable to legislators, and often flout state restrictions on advertising and promotions. New York City’s sheriff’s office says it has shuttered around 700 illegal stores since new state regulations passed in April. The unsanctioned shops had become ubiquitous across the Big Apple, when the city’s power to step in had been limited and the legal market was mired in red tape.

1. But most of these clinics have limited hours, operate on shoestring budgets, rely on volunteers and donations, and are simply not equipped to offer the level of care that people often need.
2. Now, as part of her work, Beddis runs a streetside wound care clinic that offers aid to people in need.
3. Meanwhile, most hospitals supply inadequate pain and withdrawal management to patients with fentanyl and xylazine dependence, as evidenced by extremely high self-discharge rates in this population.
4. In fact, tranq can be so potent that you’ll need several doses of naloxone to reverse the effects of the opioids present in the tranq mixture and revive someone who’s been exposed.
5. The Hamilton County Crime Laboratory started tracking xylazine in 2021, with 2022 being the first full year it tracked the drug.

Symptoms of xylazine withdrawal

Some states have placed xylazine on their own controlled substances lists. The FDA also took action in early 2023 to restrict unlawful import of xylazine and the ingredients necessary to make xylazine. Because the drug supply evolves quickly, NIDA supports the National Drug Early Warning System (NDEWS), which tracks crack withdrawal where substances, including xylazine, appear across the country. Intravenous injection is the most common route of administration for those who use heroin with xylazine recreationally. Xylazine has primarily been found as a contaminant in combination with illicit fentanyl and heroin sold on the streets.

The drug is showing up in synthetic opioids, particularly fentanyl, leading to more overdoses and alarming side effects, according to the White House Office of National Drug Control. For people who use illegal drugs, the following strategies can help reduce the risk of overdose. The alert system was created as part of an effort by local agencies to prevent overdose deaths. Not everyone in the scientific community is convinced there is a causal association between xylazine and these wounds. For example, I recently presented on a research panel during which another speaker suggested that a combination of fentanyl adulterants, or the ways in which people use, may be more to blame for the wounds.

In severe cases, a coma can develop and require the insertion of a breathing tube and hospitalization in an intensive care unit. The signs and symptoms of xylazine overdose are similar to those of heroin, fentanyl, and other opioids. When xylazine is added to opioids, severe toxicity and death can occur due to the combined effects of the drugs. Xylazine, also known as „tranq“, is an animal tranquilizer used to provide sedation, pain relief, and muscle relaxation in dogs, cats, horses, and other animals.

Xylazine is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for human use.

Let us know via We can ask experts for advice, and your story could be featured on Newsweek. „Tranq is basically zombifying people’s bodies,“ Sam, aged 28, told Sky News. „Until nine months ago, I never had wounds. Now, there drug-induced tremor are holes in my legs and feet.“ The DEA confiscated fentanyl-and-xylazine mixtures from 48 out of 50 states, and in 2022, about 22% of fentanyl powder and 7% of fentanyl pills the DEA seized were laced with xylazine.

Although many of its effects are similar to opioids, chemically it is not an opioid;  therefore, naloxone is not known to be effective in reversing the toxic effects of xylazine. Rachel McFadden is an emergency room nurse at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and also works at a wound care clinic in Kensington in North Philadelphia that serves people who use drugs. She spoke with The Conversation U.S. about how to treat xylazine wounds and how the stigma around them prevents people from getting medical care and other help. That’s because xylazine, an animal tranquilizer with no FDA-approved use in humans, is now pervasive in Philadelphia’s street fentanyl supply. Forensic testing has revealed xylazine’s presence in over 90% of street heroin and fentanyl samples, and Pennsylvania is considered the epicenter of the xylazine crisis.