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Flesh-eating drug ‘tranq’ meant for 202,013

animals now linked to thousands of

heroin, fentanyl ODs
By Jesse O’Neill September 25, 2022 4:48pm Updated

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The flesh-eating animal tranquilizer xylazine has been linked to thousands of drug overdoses across the country.
Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
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The flesh-eating animal tranquilizer xylazine has been linked
to thousands of drug overdoses across the country as it
inundates heroin and fentanyl supplies in places such as
Philadelphia, Delaware and Michigan, reports say.
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Known on the street as “tranq,” the sedative is now found in
91% of Philly’s heroin and fentanyl supplies, according to a
report earlier this month in the peer-reviewed journal Science
Direct.

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Xylazine also was involved in 19% of all drug overdose deaths in Maryland in 2021 and 10% of those in
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Xylazine causes wounds and sores on users’ bodies, resulting in a significant increase of soft-tissue
infections, bone disease and amputations in places such as Philadelphia, substance-abuse field Fenty Beauty is now up to 50% off,
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The City of Brotherly Love is now hiring a wound-care specialist and a field nurse for the sole purpose of treating tranq- See All
lesions in the national epicenter of the epidemic.
Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The drug also slows down blood flow and knocks out the user, which blunts the body’s ability to heal itself, Video
she explained. Although tranq contributes to overdoses, it is not an opioid, so its effects can’t be halted
with naloxone.

“This is more like tissue death. This is black, necrotic tissue destruction,” UCLA researcher Joseph
Friedman, who has studied the drug extensively, told the Free Press. “And the necrotic tissue doesn’t
necessarily develop at the site where the drug was injected. There’s evidence it can appear anywhere on
the body.”

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The drug also slows down blood flow and knocks out the user, which blunts the body’s ability to heal itself.
randlab.com

“It’ssomething I’ve never seen before anywhere else. People all over the place, sticking needles
anywhere they possibly can, passed out. Philly’s going under from tranq,” said user Sam Brennan, 28, to
Vice.

When Brennan first started using the drug, she mainlined it into a vein in her neck until it caused a dark
sore. Now, she shoots it straight into her muscle, chasing its euphoric effects.

“It’s a way more intense sickness than fentanyl. … You feel like you’re literally going to die,” she said.

Xylazine also was involved in 19% of all drug overdose deaths in Maryland in 2021 and 10% of those in Connecticut the
year before.
Fox illinois

Xylazine causes wounds and sores on users’ bodies, resulting in a significant increase of soft-tissue infections, bone
disease and amputations.
Getty Images/iStockphoto

“It’s like a three-hour process—you’re going out, and you’re waking up, and you’re sick.”

Bill,a 59-year-old user, told Vice the drug knocks him out for three hours and causes an outbreak of
sores.

“Inever shoot up in my hands, but I get abscesses in my knuckles, in the tops of my fingers,” he said.
“[They’re] caused by whatever they’re putting in the drugs.”

The drug has been widely abused in Puerto Rico dating back to the turn of the century, where it is known
as “anestesia de caballo,” or “horse tranquillizer.”

The recent stateside increase can be tied to a disruption in fentanyl, which was banned by China, its main
manufacturer, in 2019 under US pressure.

The drug has been widely abused in Puerto Rico dating back to the turn of the century, where it is known as “anestesia
de caballo,” or “horse tranquillizer.”
Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

“When fentanyl is not available, the cuts get heavy with xylazine,” Shinefeld said. “We’ll have someone
that’ll do a bag that’s 23 parts xylazine to one part fentanyl, and we’ll have 15 people [overdose] on one
corner,” Shinefeld said.

After being introduced to tranq by accident, some users in Philly have come to crave and prefer it.

“It’s killing us,” Brennan said.

Filed under drug overdoses fentanyl opioids philadelphia 9/25/22

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