by JASON PICCOLO at dailycaller.com
Xylazine is not just deadly when mixed with opioids; it can also cause potentially deadly necrotic skin ulcerations.
Drug control experts are sounding the alarm on the animal tranquilizer xylazine that is devastating cities and causing potentially deadly skin ulcerations to form on many xylazine users.
Xylazine emerged in Puerto Rico as an adulterant to drugs such as cocaine and heroin in the 2000s, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The drug moved to the mainland United States, landing in places like Philadelphia before coming to the attention of law enforcement. “Adding xylazine to it [fentanyl], or another anti-anxiety sedative type drug, spreads the effect out, the high, over a longer period of time,” Jeremiah Daley, the executive director of the Liberty Mid-Atlantic High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
In addition, Dailey said it gives the user “a longer period
On Friday, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas introduced the Testing, Rapid Analysis, and Narcotic Quality Research Act (TRANQ). Cruz said, “The scourge of the drug epidemic continues to ravage communities in Texas and across the country. To protect our citizens, we must work swiftly to prevent deadly new drugs like tranq [xylazine] and the truly horrifying side effects that come with it from taking hold,” according to a Senate press release.
“This is insane, the whole situation,” said Dailey of the xylazine crisis. Dailey said if xylazine is outlawed, another drug will take its place. “What’s next? There’s a whole panoply of other veterinary sedatives that could be diverted in the market. [It] would just pivot; it’s crazy,” Dailey said.
When asked where fentanyl dealers obtained xylazine, Daley said no real evidence exists that the Mexican cartel is involved with xylazine distribution. However, Daley said, “There’s more than adequate evidence at this point that the majority of the xylazine circulating now is diverted for pharmaceutical grade veterinary medicine. How those are being diverted varies, and we think, on the one hand, small-level players may have had access to veterinary medicines or just taking a couple bottles or vials off the shelf and then send them to someone. We’re also seeing case lot-sized diversion from what would be shipped into a large veterinary clinic or veterinary.”
Dailey added: “We believe that the majority of the xylazine has been introduced at the middle to retail level drug dealer primarily added at packaging houses, table houses as we call them around here, where a bulk quantity of fentanyl is broken down.”