In the glossary of drugs keeping the United States in check, there’s an animal anesthetic called Xylazine, which took the spotlight at the White House this Tuesday. The Joe Biden administration has launched a national response plan to combat the deadly effects of a deadly substance combined with fentanyl, a powerful opioid responsible for two-thirds of the estimated 110,000 recorded overdose deaths in 2022, a historic one Record. Rahul Gupta, director of the National Office for Drug Control Policy, last April called the combination a “new threat” to American public health.
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Xylazine, known on the street as Tranq, or “zombie drug,” is the active ingredient in a veterinary drug, XylaMed, which was approved by the FDA in 1972 for use as an analgesic and tranquilizer for animals. Human use is not recommended. Between 2020 and 2021, its presence in forensic investigations in the southern region of the United States increased by 1,127%, although Gupta explained that it is now a recognized substance in almost every state.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the anesthetic was linked to 11% of overdose deaths last year. “We believed that fentanyl [causante de la crisis de estupefacientes más grave de la historia del país]”It was dangerous, but the combination of both is much more deadly,” Gupta said.
The plan unveiled this Tuesday does not include measures to increase veterinary marketing, but instead includes plans to increase testing, data collection, prevention, supply chain attacks, tracking and treatment of xylazine. For Gupta, who asked Congress for funds for his crusade, it’s important to know how it’s actually being implemented on the streets.
Vendors mix the two drugs together to make them cheaper to manufacture and to prolong the duration of the fentanyl high. The side effects of the veterinary anesthetic itself are frightening and include skin ulcers, wounds, and necrosis. In their worst forms, they can lead to amputations. Respiratory arrest can also occur.
Because it’s not an opioid, it also complicates treatments aimed at reversing fentanyl overdoses. There is one drug, Narcan, whose active ingredient is naloxone, which is highly effective in getting users out of the tunnel of death, but loses its potency when the “zombie drug” comes into play. In March, the FDA approved sale without a prescription as an antidote.
The plan includes, among other measures, the training of healthcare professionals in the treatment of xylazine withdrawal and xylazine addiction and the skin injuries caused by them; Combating illegal imports from China and Mexico and finding alternatives to naloxone that work on Narq.
The agencies convened by the White House, which have set a goal of reducing xylazine-related deaths by 15% by 2025, have 60 days to present their proposals.
The United States’ relationship with fentanyl dates back to the 1990s, when drug companies like Purdue flooded the market with pills called Oxycontin, which they aggressively marketed. When doctors stopped prescribing them to a legion of addicts, they fell into the arms of heroin. Fentanyl, a drug invented in the 1960s that revolutionized anesthesiology, hit the market in the middle of the last decade.
The pandemic triggered his deployment. In 2020, overdose deaths increased by 20% to 91,799 cases. In 2021, according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, 106,699 were registered, up 16%. The following year they surpassed the 110,000 mark.
The issue has also become another front in the political war between Democrats and Republicans, whose most extremist members are calling for Biden to intervene militarily in Mexico to stop drug trafficking groups operating in the country, much like what has already happened with Islamic State. The president, who will run again in 2024, has put the fight against synthetic drugs high on his list of priorities. It must appear that there is a solution to the opioid crisis, as demonstrated by Tuesday’s event and the gathering of ministers from 84 countries by Foreign Minister Antony Blinken last Friday to set up a global alliance and ways of working together to tackle it find crisis.