A flesh-eating “zombie drug” called xylazine has been saturating the streets of Los Angeles with severe, deadly effects when mixed with illicit opioids... also known as “tranq” or “tranq dope” on the streets, xylazine has become increasingly present in the illicit drug supply. The drug can be cooked down into a powder form and mixed with illicit opioids such as heroin and fentanyl or pressed into counterfeit pills or sedatives. The “zombie drug” nickname stems from the substance’s known effect of rotting the skin.

“It’s really gruesomely disfiguring people,” said Bill Bodner, an FBI Special Agent. “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.”

Both the Drug Enforcement Administration and the L.A. County Health Department have issued urgent warnings about xylazine. Some say the county’s pilot program is a small step in the right direction to fight a massive drug war consisting of a staggering increase in deaths.

“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,” said county officials.

Chad drug dealers cleaning up our cities by melting junkies, unfathomably keyed.

Some reddit threads from the last month.

https://old.reddit.com/r/Winnipeg/comments/125dz4c/warnings_issued_after_animal_tranquilizer/

Most krokodil users have less than three-year lifespan after they start using, and folks who study this kind of thing are predicting the same for tranq.

In 50 years we'll find out that this was introduced to the supply with the intent to kill off junkies

I wish

https://old.reddit.com/r/Winnipeg/comments/125dz4c/warnings_issued_after_animal_tranquilizer/

This drug epidemic is somehow about to get a lot worse. Please educate yourself about the signs of overdose.. consider carrying nasal naloxone…people who overdose on these drugs often didn’t know this is what they were getting or didn’t know it would have this affect on them. Kids are dying from this crap. Before anyone says anything unkind, addiction is not an individual’s moral failure. Addiction is more often than not rooted in unresolved childhood trauma.

It's your job to save the rootin tootin heckin junkirinos because it's not their fault they keep injecting themselves with stuff a guy who eats dirt sold them. I like how the narrative has shifted from "just let them do what they want, it's safe and doesn't affect you" to "it's your responsibility to carry narcan around and do first aid on dying junkies."

Without supervised consumption sites and harm reduction supplies like drug test kits, naloxone, clean needle exchange etc…we’re just going to have more dead young people. A lot of these young people who are dying were teens a few years ago, who stole their parents Percocet or Xanax…this is what that has progressed to. When people who use drugs go to supervised consumption sites, they use their drugs which they were going to do anyways…but they also have the opportunity to connect with professionals who can help them when they’re ready. They have access to peer support. Connection is the opposite of addiction.

Not only is it junkies' rights to shoot up but we need to give each junkie a doctor to watch over him and resurrect him when he dies six times a day.

Apparently in New York the government will test you fentanyl to make sure it doesn't disintegrate you alive: https://old.reddit.com/r/nyc/comments/105q9mz/if_you_or_any_one_you_know_is_injecting_anything/