Xylazine (“Tranq”)
Just when you thought the deadliest drug threat in American history couldn’t get any deadlier, Rachel Treisman has news for you: Federal authorities are warning Americans about an emerging public safety threat: fentanyl mixed with xylazine, a veterinary tranquilizer that’s been linked to a growing number of overdose deaths across the country. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration issued an alert [in March] of a “sharp increase in the trafficking of fentanyl mixed with xylazine,” which is also known as “tranq” or “tranq dope.” Shishira Sreenivas tells us more about the drug — a central nervous system depressant commonly used by veterinarians to quickly sedate pets and farm animals for as long as 4 hours — and how it has made its way into the illicit drug supply: Xylazine, commonly known as “tranq,” is a non-opioid sedative analgesic medication that’s largely mixed into (adulterated) and used as an additive with other opioid substances like heroin, fentanyl, a...