Everything to know about the the veterinary tranquilizer linked to an increase of overdose deaths nationwide.
Even as law enforcement in New Jersey tries to wrap a criminal investigation into fentanyl overdoses of five women, one of whom died, at an upscale mall, federal drug authorities are warning of even more dangerous substances.
Fentanyl, which is what the women in the Shops at Riverside mall case ingested last week, can be used to lace drugs like cocaine or heroin for a stronger effect. It's an opioid said to be up to 100 times as potent as heroin -- and the DEA says it's being mixed with something to make it even more life-threatening to those who use it.
That something is called Xylazine, the DEA said as it issued a public warning earlier this week.
And it can eat your flesh.
“Xylazine is making the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, fentanyl, even deadlier," DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in a statement associated with the alert.
Also called "Tranq," Xylazine is a powerful sedative federally approved for veterinary use. Increasingly, agents are seeing traffickers mix it with fentanyl, which they say puts users at a higher risk of dying from an overdose.
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Milgram said the DEA has seized such mixtures in all but two U.S. states. Lab tests show 23% of all fentanyl powder seized by her office last year and 7% of fentanyl pills contained xylazine.
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Xylazine isn't an opioid so Narcan, which helped initially revive the women in New Jersey last week, won't reverse its effects. People who inject drug mixtures containing it can develop severe wounds, including necrosis -- the rotting of human tissue -- that could lead to amputation.
According to the CDC, 107,735 Americans died between August 2021 and August 2022 from drug poisonings, with 66% of those deaths involving synthetic opioids like fentanyl, the DEA warning said.
The Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco Cartel in Mexico, using chemicals largely sourced from China, are primarily responsible for the vast majority of the fentanyl that is being trafficked in communities across the United States, the agency added.
