In the hands of vets, xylazine is a commonly used tranquilliser, often mixed with ketamine to sedate animals, including horses, cattle, and cats. Sometimes naloxone or nalmefene isn’t given to fentanyl/xylazine patients because their symptoms are confusing or patients deny using opioids. Also, routine toxicological screening is not performed for xylazine, making intoxication with it difficult to detect and manage.
Gruesome Photos Reveal Horrors of ‘Zombie’ Drug Fentanyl Additive
Dr Copeland urged the government to introduce “simple” measures to prevent an epidemic of xylazine, including testing strips and making healthcare providers aware of the signs of xylazine use. “Xylazine was designated what to do if you have been roofied an ’emerging threat’ to the United States and this public health threat is a growing concern for the UK.” “This is cause for alarm as a much wider population of people who use drugs beyond heroin users will be exposed to its harms. Xylazine has already been labelled an “emerging threat” in America – and now experts say the public health danger has spread to Britain.
But in recent years, it has become synonymous with a darker usage, as a cutting agent for illegal drugs such as heroin. A powerful animal tranquilliser plaguing cities in the US has now “penetrated” the illegal drugs market in the UK, a report has warned. Addiction is a chronic, relapsing, long-term disease, often ending with premature death.
Symptoms of Flakka Abuse & Addiction
They also referenced the death of Mr Warburton, who the coroner said had a history of using illegal drugs. In February, Philadelphia’s substance use prevention and harm reduction chief, Dr Andrew Best, warned that cities across America should brace for xylazine and called on the federal government to do more. New figures show a shocking rise in deaths on US streets linked to a drug which rots the skin of those who use it.
Xylazine, often referred to as Tranq or the zombie drug, has spread across America at such alarming speed that the White House has now released a new six-point action plan to tackle the crisis. While there are no FDA-approved medications for addiction to flakka, there are medicines available for co-occurring mental health conditions. Flakka is an addictive drug that people use to obtain a cheap, quick, and euphoric high. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter involved in the pleasure and reward center of the brain, which gives off that euphoric feeling. Synthetic drugs are illicitly created to produce substances that differ slightly from legal drugs. Xylazine was first detected as a problem around 20 years ago in Puerto Rico, but has gradually made its way across the U.S.
The drug’s effects on the central nervous system may cause poor balance and coordination, making users stagger substance abuse coping skills or stumble. Prolonged use of xylazine-contaminated drugs can result in severe non-healing skin ulcers and infections. Reduced blood flow and poor nutrition may cause skin to appear pale, gray, or discolored. The DEA says that the major route of xylazine into the drugs trade comes from veterinarian suppliers online, as it is legal to buy the substance for use in veterinary medicine.
Xylazine is coursing through the illicit drug supply. Here’s what it does—and why it’s not the main concern.
As a component of drugs ingested by humans, xylazine was first observed in Puerto Rico in the mid-2000s. There were scattered reports of its use in Philadelphia as early as 2006, but researchers say it wasn’t until COVID hit in 2020, that tranq exploded as a major part of the street drug life, both in Philadelphia and elsewhere. The numbers, both in the northeast and around the U.S., are likely significant underestimates.
The drug is approximately 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin as an analgesic, according to the U.S. According to a case study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), the man had presented to the emergency department with a one-month history of enlarging chest wounds. Doctors have published photos revealing the disturbing impact of a dangerous fentanyl additive on the human body. “Drug overdoses remain unacceptably high as cartels and traffickers continue to flood our nation with deadly and ever-changing poison,” Grassley said in a statement introducing the legislation. “We cannot successfully prevent these tragedies with one hand tied behind our back.”
What Is Flakka?
Nitazines, often mixed into heroin, are now being cut with benzodiazepines too. “I have been a drug worker for a couple of decades now and the drugs now are more dangerous than they have ever been.” PHS warned that the drug was most likely to be consumed unintentionally because it was being cut into other drugs. Researchers, led by academics from King’s College London, say the health threat has “now expanded to the United Kingdom”. The drug was linked to a UK death for the first time during a post-mortem of psilocybe semilanceata habitat Karl Warburton, found dead at his home in Solihull in May 2022.
- Medetomidine, a related drug, is generally more potent, with longer duration than xylazine.
- The White House announced in April that a mixture of drugs — fentanyl and xylazine — pose an “emerging threat” in the US, making the ongoing drug overdose crisis even deadlier.
- “Xylazine was designated an ’emerging threat’ to the United States and this public health threat is a growing concern for the UK.”
- They published data on samples from toxicology labs, where the drug was found in 16 people – including 11 who had died.
But it has, perhaps, an even more grim side effect on users, who often develop skin sores and infections where the drug is injected. In the US, its mixture with fentanyl has had a widespread impact among drug users in American cities. Such is the concern in Washington about its spread, that Joe Biden’s administration has labelled it an emerging threat to the nation and outlined a six-point plan to tackle it. As a non-opioid sedative, it is able to inhibit the transmission of brain impulses to the central nervous system.
