‘This is Insane’: Drug Control Experts Warn About The Rise Of This Flesh-Eating Drug

‘This is Insane’: Drug Control Experts Warn About The Rise Of This Flesh-Eating Drug

Jason Piccolo on May 1, 2023

• “We believe that the majority of the xylazine has been introduced at the middle to retail level drug dealer primarily added at packaging houses, table houses as we call them around here, where a bulk quantity of fentanyl is broken down” a law enforcement official told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
• Xylazine is not just deadly when mixed with opioids; it can also cause potentially deadly necrotic skin ulcerations.
• “The scourge of the drug epidemic continues to ravage communities in Texas and across the country. To protect our citizens, we must work swiftly to prevent deadly new drugs like tranq [xylazine] and the truly horrifying side effects that come with it from taking hold,” said Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

Drug control experts are sounding the alarm on the animal tranquilizer xylazine that is devastating cities and causing potentially deadly skin ulcerations to form on many xylazine users.

Xylazine emerged in Puerto Rico as an adulterant to drugs such as cocaine and heroin in the 2000s, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).  The drug moved to the mainland United States, landing in places like Philadelphia before coming to the attention of law enforcement. “Adding xylazine to it [fentanyl], or another anti-anxiety sedative type drug, spreads the effect out, the high, over a longer period of time,” Jeremiah Daley, the executive director of the Liberty Mid-Atlantic High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

In addition, Dailey said it gives the user “a longer period of relief from jonesing, from going into withdrawal and re-administering.”

On Friday, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas introduced the Testing, Rapid Analysis, and Narcotic Quality Research Act (TRANQ). Cruz said, “The scourge of the drug epidemic continues to ravage communities in Texas and across the country. To protect our citizens, we must work swiftly to prevent deadly new drugs like tranq [xylazine] and the truly horrifying side effects that come with it from taking hold,” according to a Senate press release.

“This is insane, the whole situation,” said Dailey of the xylazine crisis. Dailey said if xylazine is outlawed, another drug will take its place. “What’s next? There’s a whole panoply of other veterinary sedatives that could be diverted in the market. [It] would just pivot; it’s crazy,” Dailey said.

When asked where fentanyl dealers obtained xylazine, Daley said no real evidence exists that the Mexican cartel is involved with xylazine distribution. However, Daley said, “There’s more than adequate evidence at this point that the majority of the xylazine circulating now is diverted for pharmaceutical grade veterinary medicine. How those are being diverted varies, and we think, on the one hand, small-level players may have had access to veterinary medicines or just taking a couple bottles or vials off the shelf and then send them to someone. We’re also seeing case lot-sized diversion from what would be shipped into a large veterinary clinic or veterinary.”

Dailey added: “We believe that the majority of the xylazine has been introduced at the middle to retail level drug dealer primarily added at packaging houses, table houses as we call them around here, where a bulk quantity of fentanyl is broken down.”

Xylazine is not just deadly when mixed with opioids; it can also cause potentially deadly necrotic skin ulcerations. “Repeated exposure to xylazine, by injection, has been associated with severe, necrotic skin ulcerations that are distinctly different from other soft-tissue infections,” according to a 2022 FDA alert sent to health care professionals.

Prevention Point, a nonprofit public health organization operating in Philadelphia’s most hard-hit areas deals directly with skin ulcerations caused by xylazine. Silvana Mazella, the organization’s associate executive director told the Daily Caller News Foundation that “people who use drugs containing xylazine are seeing skin ulcerations, covered by dead tissue on their skin, not necessarily at the site where they are injecting drugs. A black crust forms on the outside of the wounds, and the tissue underneath becomes infected and necrotic if not cared for properly.” She added: “The wounds are more difficult to treat, and stigma often prevents people from seeking care. We are anecdotally seeing an increase in limb loss as a result of the progression of the wounds.”

Mazella cautioned that special training is needed to address the xylazine crisis. Mazella said, “this is an unfolding crisis, and public health systems have an opportunity to do something about the overdose epidemic. Hospitals, first responders, and all medical professionals need special training in how to respond to xylazine-involved overdoses, xylazine withdrawal treatment and distribution of Narcan to xylazine-exposed individuals.”