In recent years, a peculiar drug has unleashed a growing wave of poisonings in the United States. The nation is battling, for the first time in its history, a substance it has dubbed a “emerging threat”.
It is so much so that last February the United States Government announced a series of restrictive measures against the illegal importation of the addictive substance, which is for veterinary use.
What is it about?
The disease comes from xylazine, authorized as a veterinary sedative and analgesic since 1972 by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The drug is not approved for use in humans, according to the international news agency AFP, and is used in many animal species, specifically, to calm and facilitate handling when performing diagnostic and surgical procedures, relieving pain or act as a local anesthetic.
This animal drug is being used in the country, mixed with other types of drugs (opoids) such as fentanyl and heroin, and is what is commonly known as “calm down” either “zombie drug”.
Since fentanyl is an opioid, that is, a pain reliever with short-lived effects, the hypothesis “is that xylazine is added to prolong its effects”explains to AFP Courtney McKnight, associate professor of clinical epidemiology at New York University.
Opoids affect nerve cells (neurons) in the brain and body. They instruct the brain to block pain in order to provide a feeling of happiness.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is detecting more and more in toxicology tests, the AFP points out.
And what is causing it?
Its consumption can slow people’s breathing and heart rate to dangerous levels.
“The drug eats away at the tissues and causes deep wounds in the skin”This is how another news agency, Europa Press, describes it, because it causes major infections that can even lead to the amputation of a limb.
In addition to the sores and rotting lesions on the skin, it also produces the withdrawal syndrome or “monkey”, which is “a set of physical and psychological reactions that arise after a person reduces or stops consuming a substance of the that he has been abusing for a long time”, the experts explain.
The zombie drug causes strong anxiety attacks.
Heroin user Martin, 45, shows his scars from drug use at the Santa Ana Harm Reduction Corner in New York on May 25, 2023.
What do the figures say?
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of fatal overdoses containing xylazine rose from 260 in 2018 to 3,480 in 2021.
Although Philadelphia is listed as the epicenter of “tranq”, in New York 19% of opioid overdoses -419 deaths in 2021-, contained this compound, according to data provided to AFP.
Between 2020 and 2021, “Xylazine detection by the DEA increased by almost 200% in the South of the country (United States) and more than 100% in the West”indicates the AFP.
The health authorities launched an “import alert” four months ago to better control the supply of xylazine and ensure that it is destined for veterinary use.
Is there already an antidote?
Given the questions about how to medically alleviate the problem, there is still no cure.
There is naloxone, approved in late March by the FDA that is used to revive a person who has overdosed on an opioid, such as fentanyl, but it is not effective against xylazine.