The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration recently issued a warning about a drug that’s making the nation’s deadly opioid epidemic even deadlier.
It’s xylazine, a powerful veterinary sedative that’s increasingly being found in illicit fentanyl supplies around the U.S. The agency’s lab system found xylazine in 23% of fentanyl powder and 7% of fentanyl pills it had seized in 2022. Policymakers are aware of the lethal mixture — also called tranq — but they’re moving too slowly to contain it.
Xylazine is a scary addition to the illicit medicine cabinet. The drug is relatively cheap and has longer-lasting effects than fentanyl alone and can cause skin to slough off, forming deep wounds that can become so badly infected they require amputation. Users can lose chunks of time, blackouts that put them at risk of rape and theft. And its growing presence in the fentanyl supply is making it even harder to treat addiction.