Xylazine: An Emerging Drug Threat Triggering Health Crises Across the U.S.

Xylazine: This ‘Zombie Drug’ Is Fueling a New Wave of Devastating Health Consequences Across the U.S.

If there is one truth that applies to all drug abuse these days, it is this: There is no safety when you are using illicit drugs. That bag of drugs you think you’re buying—that you think you know how to use without killing yourself—you likely may not even know the real contents. And these days, the drugs you are buying could very well contain the “zombie drug” xylazine.

Just like fentanyl began to be added to heroin and then cocaine and methamphetamine supply a decade ago, the veterinary sedative xylazine arrived on the illicit market and then spread across the country. Every year, xylazine reaches further and shows up in more drug tests. Fentanyl and xylazine seem to travel across the country together, with many people who think they are buying fentanyl are actually buying a combination of fentanyl and xylazine.¹ Xylazine and heroin are another mix found on the illicit market.

Xylazine and Overdoses

As a veterinary sedative, xylazine lowers the blood pressure, heart rate and slows breathing. All by itself, it can slow breathing to the point of death. When added to an opioid or a central nervous system depressant like Xanax, Valium or alcohol, there is an even greater danger of death. A person dying from the combined effects of Xanax or Valium and xylazine cannot be revived with naloxone. Naloxone doesn’t work on any of these drugs, only on opioids like fentanyl, heroin, oxycodone and others.¹

Physical Destruction Resulting from Xylazine

In addition to that problem, xylazine causes ulceration that goes so deep, bones may be exposed. Surgical repair may be needed to close these wounds and in some cases, amputation may be required.

Horrific images of blacked and infected wounds on arms, legs or other parts of the body are documented by healthcare workers in cities plagued by heavy drug use. People with abscesses resulting from the use of unclean needles or contaminated drugs have been seen for as long as people have been injecting drugs, but this is a completely different phenomenon. These ulcers can show up far from any injecting sites because xylazine causes small blood vessels anywhere in the body to shut down. Once the blood stops flowing to parts of the body, the flesh in that area can die and secondary infections can set in.²

The “Zombie” Effect

The reason that xylazine is sometimes referred to as a “zombie drug” is that users may be unable to move or communicate after injecting the drug. When xylazine made it into the heavy drug-using neighborhoods of Philadelphia, news sources began to run videos of people staggering or standing bent over, motionless, unable to control their movements. Others were filmed sitting slumped and unresponsive. It’s as though these people are in a coma. These videos are heartbreaking. On the street, this drug began to be called “tranq,” short for tranquilizer.

Combine the zombie effects with the grievous wounds the drug causes and you have a substance that seems to come straight from hell.

Xylazine is Often Used in Combination with Other Drugs

The use of xylazine is often combined with the use of many other types of drugs. Saving someone from an overdose of xylazine can be complicated because most overdose deaths linked to both xylazine and fentanyl also involve the abuse of other drugs, such as cocaine, heroin, benzodiazepines, alcohol, gabapentin, and prescription opioid medications. Trying to save someone after a mixed-drug overdose is a challenging and complicated activity.

The drugs the user bought could have contained a combination of ingredients or the user may have taken one drug after another or combined them while seeking a specific drug experience. In 2022, xylazine began to show up in counterfeit pills sold by drug traffickers. These pills typically contained both fentanyl and xylazine.

Xylazine Use Keeps Increasing

The appearance of this highly toxic drug has continued to spread without slowing. This is despite the awareness on the part of drug users of the risks of using it. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy designated xylazine as an emerging threat as recently as early 2023.³ Since it’s mostly been found in fentanyl, wherever fentanyl goes, xylazine is likely to follow.

Drug dealers add xylazine to their products to add bulk or “enhance” the effect of opioids. It is said to lengthen the effect of an opioid like heroin or fentanyl.

Initially, xylazine was found in Puerto Rico. It then made its way into drug supplies in Philadelphia and Maryland. As of 2023, it was increasingly found in the Mountain States and West Coast. One measure of its spread is how often the drug appears in urine tests. In the first six months of 2023, only 3% of urine tests were positive for xylazine in Washington, Oregon and California. From November 2023 to April 2024, positive urine tests rose to 8%.⁴

In the Mountain States in 2023, positive urine tests averaged 2% of all tests done. By 2024, positive tests were at 4%. On the East Coast where the problem began, positive urine tests increased from 14% in 2023 to 28% in 2024.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, 30% of all the fentanyl seized in 2023 contained xylazine. That compares with 25% of fentanyl seized in 2022.⁵

Rescuing Those Who Are Trapped in Drug Addiction

Xylazine is another one of those drugs that makes drug abuse desperately life-threatening. Those who don’t die from the fentanyl or xylazine overdose risk horrific ulcerations of their arms or legs that could result in amputations.

Someone who is not addicted might struggle to understand why anyone would continue to use fentanyl if they knew it could contain xylazine. Once a person becomes addicted, they lose the power of choice. It’s like the addiction makes the decision for them on whether or not to use the drug or the decision about stealing from their family or employer. The compulsion to use drugs is overwhelming and can take precedence over caring about their health or their family’s well-being. For this reason, it is vital to intervene when someone you care about is starting to abuse drugs. If you can help them quit before they are addicted, you could very well save their lives.

If you have not been able to prevent their addiction, there is still hope. But in most cases, it will take more time and effort to help the person turn their life around. Many people beat addiction and go on to live productive, enjoyable lives. The right drug rehabilitation program is an essential part of making this turn.

Sources:

Karen

After a few years working at the Narconon center in Oklahoma, Karen has been researching drug trends around the world and writing reports and articles on addiction and recovery for nine years.
read more