A new drug known as Xylazine or “tranq” has caused major havoc in cities across the United States by causing deadly symptoms such as skin rotting.
Key points
- This ‘zombie drug’ was approved for veterinary use by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and was used to cut heroin, but it was recently discovered in fentanyl and other illicit drugs.
- Xylazine, a non-opioid, is not safe for humans because an overdose prevents one from responding to naloxone, or Narcan-the most commonly used overdose reversal treatment.
- Zombie refers to a human who lacks the ability to speak or move (as in voodoo belief and in fictional stories), and who is believed to have died and been supernaturally reanimated. It also refers to a supernatural force that, in voodoo belief, may enter into a dead body and reanimate it.
