Health officials in San Francisco are sounding the alarm about an animal tranquilizer that is being mixed into illegal drugs after a handful of overdose victims were found to have the substance in their system.
Low levels of xylazine, a non-opioid veterinary tranquilizer known as “Tranq,” has been detected in the four people who recently died while using drugs, the San Francisco Department of Public Health saidXylazine is often mixed with fentanyl, heroin and other illegal drugs, officials said. The drug isn’t federally approved for human use.
“Because it’s not that common, it’s not routinely tested for,” Dr. Gary Tsai, the director of substance abuse prevention and control for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, toldSan Francisco health officials said that the four xylazine victims died between mid-December and mid-January. Dr. Tsai said that he also knew of at last one such death in his county, in 2021.
The drug “can be smoked, snorted or injected. It causes severe skin ulcerations that spread and worsen quickly,” San Francisco health officials said. “Repeated xylazine injection has also been associated with severe, necrotic skin lesions often requiring advanced wound care. These wounds may occur in areas of the body away from the injection site.”
Adding to the danger, according to Dr. Tsai, is that xylazine is immune to naloxone, the emergency drug that can reverse an opioid overdose.
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