Drug addicts are reportedly experimenting with an especially destructive drug: the veterinary tranquilizer xylazine.
Xylazine, often called "tranq" or the "zombie drug," has profoundly devastating effects on human beings. Users who do not immediately die by overdose frequently see their skin rot, turn black, and slough off or their injection wounds become infected and compromise entire limbs.
This danger is compounded by the drug's increasing popularity in big American cities such as San Francisco, New York, and Philadelphia.
Los Angeles, another hard-hit city, has witnessed the animal tranquilizer spread into the local street drug supply, prompting the LA County Sheriff's Department to begin actively testing confiscated drugs for traces of xylazine.
The zombie drug, usually purchased online from Chinese suppliers for $6-$20 per kilogram, is neither a controlled substance nor a new drug. It has been long marketed as a veterinary drug and used as a sedative.
According to a 2014 study published in the journal Forensic Science International, "In humans, it could cause central nervous system depression, respiratory depression, bradycardia, hypotension, and even death. There have been publications of 43 cases of xylazine intoxication in humans, in which 21 (49%) were non-fatal scenarios and 22 (51%) resulted in fatalities."
TheBlaze previously reported on a warning provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which said, "Repeated exposure to xylazine, by injection, has been associated with severe, necrotic skin ulcerations that are distinctly different from other soft-tissue infections (e.g., cellulitis, abscesses) often associated with injection drug use. These ulcerations may develop in areas of the body away from the site of injection."
The drug is reportedly used frequently as an adulterant in recreational drugs — to enhance or mimic the effects of other illicit drugs, such as heroin or cocaine.
While dangerous on its own, used in combination with other drugs, xylazine can prove especially fatal.
For instance, a 2021 American study detected the drug in 42 Connecticut fatal overdoses from March to August 2019.
KTLA reported that the recent rash of xylazine use has seen some users horribly disfigured. Some have been found covered in sores, requiring amputation. Others have had their skin fall off and inner workings exposed.
Tracey McCann, a user, told the New York Times earlier this year that the needle bruises she had from fentanyl were hardening and turning crusty. "I’d wake up in the morning crying because my arms were dying," said McCann.
Brooke Peder, a 38-year-old user in the city, lost her leg as the result of a zombie drug wound that became infected and ate into the bone. She bore her arm for the Times, revealing "patches of blackened tissue, exposed white tendons and pus, the sheared flesh was hot and red."
"The tranq dope literally eats your flesh," said Peder. "It's self-destruction at its finest."
"We had a woman come in and her sister had passed away from a fentanyl overdose," addiction expert Cary Quashen told KTLA. "But not only was it a fentanyl overdose (but) her skin was starting to rot, the muscles on her leg and her arm. So that’s a sure sign of xylazine."
DEA special agent Bill Bodner told KTLA, "It's really gruesomely disfiguring people. ... It’s much more likely to stop someone from breathing and the things that come along with xylazine, it’s a vasoconstrictor. So when you’re injecting it, it’s actually reducing the blood circulation."
The DEA released an intelligence report on the drug in October, detailing instances of exhibits involving the drug in the agency's laboratory system between 2020 and 2021. The report noted a 61% increase in the Northeast U.S. census region, a 193% increase in the South, a 7% increase in the Midwest, and a 112% increase in the West.
As xylazine-positive overdoses in the aforementioned U.S. census regions, the Northeast has seen a 103% increase; the South, a 1,127% increase; the Midwest, a 516% increase; and the West, a 750% increase.
This was not previously a priority, as the drug is not illegal.
Beginning in April, the LACSO's pilot program has had crime lab analysts noting preliminary signs of the tranquilizer when testing confiscated drugs.
"In the greater Los Angeles area, we are seeing xylazine as an additive within fake fentanyl pills," DEA Los Angeles Field Division spokeswoman Nicole Nishida told the Los Angeles Times. "While the numbers are relatively low in our community compared to elsewhere in the United States, the presence of xylazine is now becoming more frequent and the trend is concerning."
The Times indicated that federal data shows that roughly 23% of fentanyl powder and 7% of fentanyl pills seized in 2022 contained the tranquilizer.
If they determine by month's end that the number of xylazine positives is high, they will figure out standards for conducting additional confirmatory tests.
"This is going to be very unique for us, because I’m asking them to track a non-controlled substance," Capt. Ernest Bille, who oversees the department’s Scientific Services Bureau, told the Los Angeles Times.
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On Friday, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler announced a five-point plan to address the city's homelessness crisis, including a citywide ban on unsanctioned encampments.
"The magnitude and the depth of the homeless crisis in our city is nothing short of a humanitarian catastrophe," Wheeler stated during a Friday press conference. "We need to move our scattered, vulnerable homeless population closer to the services that they need."
The plan includes: creating 20,000 units of affordable housing by 2033, increasing access to paid non-standard work, banning unsanctioned camping, creating a diversion program to encourage treatment for drug abuse and mental health, and setting a city budget.
Wheeler said that he hopes to create three designated sites to house up to 125 campers each before the start of winter. However, funding has yet to be locked down, and the camping sites would take 18 months to open. The mayor did not specify how much the project would cost.
"We do have locations in mind. We're currently in discussions with those who control those sites and will be ready to discuss them as soon as we have agreements in place," said Wheeler.
According to WFIN, more than 3,000 people in Portland are homeless, a 50% increase from 2019. The outlet reported that the city contains 700 encampments within 146 square miles. A recent survey found that the top concern for Oregonians is homelessness, KATU reported.
Wheeler explained that arrests and fines are an option for individuals who refuse to move, but not a first resort.
"If somebody just absolutely just digs in and says, 'I won't go,' then we'll have to talk about criminal sanctions. But I also want to stress, the fourth resolution that we put into place, our goal here isn't to write a bunch of citations," said Wheeler.
The mayor noted that the city would waive the sanctions and low-level offenses in exchange for volunteering to participate in treatment for substance abuse and mental health. Wheeler stated that the ultimate goal of the proposed program is to ensure that people who need treatment receive it.
\u201cAs Mayor Wheeler unveils his new plan to ban unsanctioned homeless camping across Portland, @mallisonKATU asks him about how they will enforce it if people don\u2019t want to leave their campsite? \n\nWATCH: https://t.co/wOAfuhwexV\u201d— KATU News (@KATU News) 1666377068
Homeless advocates expressed concern about the ban on unsanctioned encampments and the timeline for creating additional housing.
Scott Kerman, executive director of Blanchet House, a Portland non-profit offering services to the homeless, told KATU that his main apprehension about the program is the ban.
"I certainly have a lot of questions about the enforcement mechanism of this ban," said Kerman. "And I think Mayor Wheeler acknowledged that those individuals that are not incentivized to select services and shelter options will be arrested."
Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty also expressed deep concern over the mayor's proposal.
"No city plan for shelter expansion should involve sending people to jail because they live in extreme poverty, or may be suffering from a mental or behavioral health issue," Hardesty stated.
The mayor's proposed plan will be introduced to the City Council on Wednesday. In 2015, the council declared a state of emergency on homelessness that it has extended five times since then.
Drug use fell significantly among teenagers last year while rising among young adults, according to surveys out of the University of Michigan. The drop in teenage drug use was the largest ever recorded in the 46 years since the Monitoring the Future (MTF) Study began surveying high school students.
The surveys show that "marijuana and hallucinogen use in the past year reported by young adults 19 to 30 years old increased significantly in 2021 compared to five and 10 years ago, reaching historic highs in this age group since 1988."
Researchers also found that “the percentage of youth who had ever used any illicit drug other than marijuana decreased by more than 25% in 2021. Specifically, in 12th grade this percentage was 27% smaller in comparison to the previous year, in 10th grade the decline was 31%, and in 8th grade the drop was 30%.”
A research team of professors at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research has conducted annual surveys of students in grades 8, 10, and 12 since 1975. The survey, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, has included young adults 19 to 30 years old since 1988. Participants self-report their drug use behaviors across three time periods — lifetime, past year (12 months), and past month (30 days).
Richard Miech, the principal investigator of the study and a research professor at the Institute for Social Research, attributed those drops to the COVID-19 pandemic. "Among the many disruptions adolescents have experienced as a result of the pandemic are disruptions in their ability to get drugs, disruptions in their ability to use drugs outside of parental supervision, and disruptions in peer groups that encourage drug use," Miech said. "As a result, this year, it appears that a sizable portion of adolescents have not used drugs who otherwise may have done so."
Reason disputes this proposed causation, noting that “the pandemic does not explain why past-month psychedelic use rose slightly or remained about the same among teenagers in 2020, when more schools were closed than in 2021. Nor does it explain the long-term decline in adolescent marijuana use.”
The MTF study also collected data on drug use reported by adults 35 to 50 years old, college/non-college young adults, and various other demographic groups.
Harris wants to continue on her “progressive” path and forget about enforcing the laws passed by a democratically elected legislature, while ignoring threats to public safety.
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The real causes of homelessness are ignored by so-called advocates.
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