Xylazine Threat: Feds Issue Warning Over Fentanyl Mixture 'Tranq'

ACROSS AMERICA — Federal drug authorities are warning Americans about a sharp increase in trafficking in a deadly new fentanyl cocktail that is cut with the common veterinary sedative xylazine, also known as “Tranq.”

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said in a public safety alert Monday that xylazine “is making the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, fentanyl, even deadlier.”

Xylazine isn’t an opioid, so the overdose reversal drug naloxone — Narcan — doesn’t work, putting users at a greater risk of overdose, the DEA said. Tranq causes a range of other serious medical problems, including severe wounds at the injection point or necrosis — the rotting of human tissue — that may lead to amputation.

According to CNN, the White House is looking at xylazine as a potential “emerging threat,” meaning they would develop a federal plan to address it.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates two-thirds of all drug overdose deaths in the United States are fentanyl-related. Previously released provisional data may have undercounted drug overdose deaths due to reporting delays, the agency said.

Now, with the revised data, the CDC projects that 4,500 more people than previously thought may have died of overdoses from the 12-month period ending in October 2022. According to the most recent projections, 107,689 people died of drug overdoses during the period.

In 2022, nearly a quarter (23 percent) of all fentanyl powder and 7 percent of all fentanyl pills seized in investigations contained xylazine, the DEA said. Xylazine and fentanyl mixtures were seized in 48 of 50 states.