AMERICA'S TRANQ CRISIS: Addict open up on devastating effects of flesh-eating drug taking over LA
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Officials in Los Angeles are reportedly trying to stop the 'zombie drug' Xylazine, which has taken over the city, from spreading. The flesh-eating animal tranquilizer has been linked to thousands of drug overdoses across the US. Known on the street as 'tranq', the sedative reportedly inundates heroin and fentanyl supplies in Philadelphia, Delaware, and Michigan. Of late, the drug has spread to Los Angeles.
An addict has now told New York Post about the devastating effects of Xylazine. “I wanted to try something new and one of the effects it had on me was I started getting a gnarly rash on my backside. My skin just started to look weird, like I almost had scales,” Shawn said.
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The drug is often used on horses as a muscle relaxant and anesthetic. Xylazine causes wounds and sores on the bodies of users. This leads to an increase in soft-tissue infections, bone disease, and amputations, substance abuse field epidemiologist Jen Shinefeld told Vice. The drug can also slow down blood flow and knock out the user, affecting the body’s self-healing capacity. Tranq causes overdoses, but it is not an opioid, and thus, its effects cannot possibly be halted with naloxone.
'Your heart is pounding really, really fast'
Shawn once had to be revived after overdosing on a mixture of heroin and fentanyl in a Starbucks bathroom. He described the effects of tranq and said, "Your heart is pounding really, really, really, really, really, really fast. But you can’t, can’t move. It’s like it’s just crazy. I don’t want to sound like I’m saying, ‘It’s the bomb,’ but it’s an amazing effect when it hits your bloodstream. It does something to your mind and there is no pain. Like you’re riding a rollercoaster and then there’s no pain.”
Nurses have said that the wounds caused by Xylazine appear like something is "eating away your flesh from the inside out." Various politicians and city leaders have tried to implement policies to curb the issues arising due to the homeless population, more so because of those who are addicted.
Shawn said he mixed tranq with other drugs on four occasions. He has also injected it on his own. “Normally, it’s like a vial and you put it in like … I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a tranquilizer gun with a big needle. And it looks like that,” Shawn said of his dosing process. “When you shoot it, it hurts. But after like two or three seconds, you don’t feel any pain. You’re out.”
'It’s like when ecstasy hit'
Warnings have been issued by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the county's health department against using the drug. "When combined with opioids like fentanyl, as is frequently the case, xylazine enhances the life-threatening effect of respiratory depression (slowing or stopping breathing) caused by opioids, increasing the risk of overdose and death," county officials said, according to Daily Mail.
According to the White House, a majority of overdose deaths are connected to fentanyl poisoning or overdose. It said the drug mainly comes from China via Mexico, with a handful of cartels bringing them across the border.
DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said, “Xylazine is making the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, fentanyl, even deadlier.”
Shawn, worryingly, sees it as becoming more mainstream. “It’s like when ecstasy hit. In the beginning, the only group of people who would do that were people that went to raves. And then that exploded. And then Molly, and now fentanyl. And now fentanyl mixed with other things like tranq. It doesn’t end,” he said.