Experts are sounding the alarm about the ‘zombie drug’ xylazine coming into the US through the southern border.
The animal tranquilizer, added to street drugs to make them more potent, has been linked to thousands of US overdose deaths per year since the Covid pandemic.
Most of the deaths have been on the East Coast where there are several ports of entry for international goods, but now there are growing concerns the drug could permeate countless other cities and spark a fresh wave of the drug epidemic.
For the first time, researchers have confirmed in a new study that it is being smuggled into the US through Mexico, after testing urine and drug paraphernalia samples from a border town clinic and found xylazine in about 83 percent of them.
Xylazine, sometimes known as ‘tranq’, is often mixed with fentanyl to augment the high.
The drug is typically injected, which causes blood vessels to constrict to the point where they cannot carry oxygenated blood throughout the body, starving tissues of oxygen and causing skin to rot and die.
Dr Joseph R. Friedman, a psychiatrist at UC San Diego School of Medicine and lead author of the new study, said: ‘Although xylazine has been most prevalent on the East Coast of the United States, this new evidence confirms its presence in Tijuana, on the U.S.-Mexico border, posing numerous health risks for people in this region.’
Xylazine, a veterinary sedative, is the latest substance to appear in the illicit drug supply. Officially used to tranquilize animals, it’s increasingly being mixed with fentanyl and consumed by injection or snorting
Tijuana is a major port of entry and the final checkpoint on the path that traffickers take to pass their products through Mexico and into the US.
The city sits atop a labyrinth of tunnels complete with lighting and ventilation systems drug traffickers wind through to pass their products to American hands.
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The CDC reported last spring that deaths involving both fentanyl and xylazine across 20 states and DC increased from 3 percent in January 2019 to 11 percent in June 2022.
Xylazine-related overdose deaths in the US rose from 102 in 2018 to 3,468 in 2021.
By 2022, xylazine was detected in nearly 11 percent of fentanyl-related deaths across 20 states, the equivalent of around 5,000 deaths.
Researchers, funded, in part, by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Mental Health, looked at anonymous records from a free clinic in the town.
They tested urine samples and drug paraphernalia collected from 23 patients who had admitted to using illegal opioids in the previous 24 hours.
All of the patients had used fentanyl, and most had used methamphetamine or heroin. Xylazine was detected in 19 urine samples and on 15 needles, pipes, and baggies.
Xylazine is often mixed in with fentanyl to augment the high that users experience. Drug seizures by border officials have risen steadily over the past six or seven years
In addition to xylazine and fentanyl, test strips also detected black tar heroin, meth, lidocaine, and tramadol, a prescription opioid, in urine and paraphernalia samples.
Fifteen of the 23 subjects – 22 of whom were men – were unhoused when they went to the clinic, and seven of them had severe skin lesions at the time of their visit.
Xylazine constricts blood vessels that carry oxygenated blood throughout the body.
When bodily tissues don’t get the oxygen they need, they die, leading to open sores and ulcers on the skin.
If those gaping sores go untreated, they can result in a devastating infection that can require amputation.
America’s streets, already contending with a flood of deadly fentanyl in the illicit drug supply, are increasingly seeing it cut with the veterinary tranquilizer drug xylazine, which leaves users in a zombie-like state.
The drug is not an opioid but is often mixed with opioids — such as fentanyl — to augment the high and reduce the number of times an addict needs to get a shot.
Researchers also determined that test strips returned false positives in samples that were found to contain the sedative lidocaine.
Xylazine constricts blood vessels, reducing oxygen flow to tissues. This oxygen deprivation causes tissue death, leading to open sores and ulcers on the skin
It was only after conducting more rigorous, highly precise testing that they detected xylazine, suggesting that drug users with test strips may still be unknowingly taking tranq.
Still, researchers argue test strips are worthwhile, as not all samples contained lidocaine.
Dr Friedman said: ‘This study underscores the importance of expanding drug-checking efforts in border regions.
‘Our findings also support the use of xylazine test strips as a harm reduction tool, providing people who use drugs and healthcare providers with critical information about exposure risks.’
The latest findings were published in the Journal of Addiction Medicine.
Xylazine is increasingly appearing in drug seizures by customs and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
The DEA said in September 2023 that the drug had entered the US in several ways – ‘in solid form from China and other countries, in liquid form either diverted from veterinary supply chains or packaged to resemble a veterinary drug, and, to a lesser degree, mixed with fentanyl seized at the southwest border.’
The drug comes from Europe, as well. Last fall, Customs and Border Protection officers in Philadelphia intercepted a package containing a kilo of xylazine that had shipped from Spain and was labeled ‘mica powder for makeup.’
By 2022, xylazine was detected in nearly 11 percent of fentanyl-related deaths across 20 states, the equivalent of around 5,000 deaths
Adam Streetman, CBP's Area Port of Philadelphia Director, said at the time: ‘Customs and Border Protection officers know the challenges our country faces in protecting our citizens from the deadly threats posed by dangerous drugs trafficked by transnational criminal organizations, including dangerous synthetics like xylazine, and from fentanyl and fentanyl precursors.’
The most powerful and well-organized trafficking organization in Mexico is the Sinaloa Cartel, spearheaded by El Chapo Guzman since the 1980s until his most recent imprisonment in 2019.
The cartel drives the bulk of fentanyl trafficking into the US. Less is known about its role in producing and distributing xylazine, though the Sinaloa Cartel is known to mix its supplies with other substances to keep customers wanting more.