Shocking video shows former ‘tranq dope’ xylazine user in Nashville with a gaping wound

Shocking footage has emerged of the injuries sustained by a former xylazine user after his skin rotted away.

A harm reduction page on TikTok shared the footage of the man having his wounds cleaned after taking the drug.

The unidentified man, who lives in Nashville, Tennessee, has a large wound on his upper left arm after using xylazine, which is said to rot the user’s skin.

The “zombie drug,” a veterinary tranquilizer approved in the US for animals, is now flooding the illicit US drug market, with dealers regularly cutting fentanyl with it.

The page that shared the video is run by a woman known only as Miriam who helps with the nonprofit “Tennessee Harm Reduction.”

In the video, Miriam explains in a voiceover that she relies on donations to work for addicts who, among other things, can’t go to the hospital because they don’t have health insurance.

As she talks, she can be seen cleaning and tending to a large wound on the man’s upper left arm, which appears to be a dark red color.

She explains that some hospitals abuse drug users and one of the men she helps overheard doctors talking about how bad he smelled.

Miriam says: ‘For opioid dependent individuals, withdrawal usually begins while they are in the waiting room.

“Users are often fired with a prescription they don’t have the money for.

“When it’s all said and done, they’ve had an experience that was very unpleasant.”

Speaking of the man’s wounds in the video, Miriam explains, ‘This man’s wounds need to be wrapped, I’ll do the same thing tomorrow night.

“Fingers crossed, this man can keep his arm.”

Opioid awareness TikTok page Operation Opiate also shared a warning about the new drug that is often cut with heroin and fentanyl.

In her post, Jessica, a recovering addict, who uses her platform to warn about the dangers of opioids, including fentanyl, says, “I’ve been hearing a lot about the drug Xylazine lately.

“What you have to worry about is a drug called Xylazine, it essentially rots your skin away.”

“You should be aware, apparently the FDA is going to crack down on this.”

The woman, known only as Jessica, shares her experience of drug use as a former user and issued a PSA on Xylazine

Jessica, seen in the video with a large scar on her chest, says her drug use caused infective endocarditis and she underwent surgery for her third heart valve replacement.

Infective endocarditis (IE) occurs when bacteria that enter the bloodstream lodge in the heart lining, a heart valve, or a blood vessel.

According to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), xylazine is readily available for purchase on Internet sites in both liquid and powder forms.

The agency says sites often show no association with the veterinary profession or any requirements to demonstrate a legitimate need for it.

According to the DEA, a kilogram of xylazine powder can be purchased online from Chinese suppliers with going prices between $6 and $20 per kilogram.

The drug has recently spread to Los Angeles, with news crews capturing people hunched over and lying on the ground, strapped to the drug.

The problem, Los Angeles County Sheriff officials say, is that the drug is technically a legal substance.

The DEA and the county health department have both issued urgent warnings against the use of the drug.

In a public safety alert, DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said: “Xylazine poses the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, fentanyl, even deadlier.

DEA has seized mixtures of xylazine and fentanyl in 48 of the 50 states.

“The DEA Laboratory System reports that by 2022, approximately 23% of fentanyl powder and 7% of fentanyl pills seized by the DEA will contain xylazine.”

The drug is now widely available in most parts of the country and even online for as little as $6, according to the DEA

Xylazine is now flooding the illicit US drug market, with drug dealers cutting everything from cocaine to heroin with the powerful sedative

News crews in Los Angeles captured footage of people bent over and lying on the ground, strapped to the drug

The DEA issued an urgent warning against the use of the drug, warning that it is exacerbating the fentanyl crisis

The DEA says xylazine takes a few minutes to take effect with effects lasting up to four hours in animals. It’s not clear how long these would last in humans.

In many cases, it leaves users ‘knocked out’ for hours on street corners and at bus stops.

When these people come to, they find that the heroin high has worn off and they go looking for their next hit.

The drug also causes open wounds on the body – often away from the injection site.

Philadelphia is currently at the epicenter of America’s xylazine crisis with reports from an outreach charity finding patients with “gaping wounds” and “unable to walk.”

Sarah Laurel, founder of outreach organization Savage Sisters, shared The Philadelphia Inquirer: ‘I’ve never seen people stay in this kind of situation.

“They have open, gaping wounds, they can’t walk.”

In 2019, about a third of all opioid fatal overdoses in the city were related to the drug.

Experts say patients die after taking xylazine because it can slow breathing, heart rate and blood pressure, amplifying the effects of other drugs.

A record number of nearly 107,000 Americans die of drug overdoses each year, but estimates of how much xylazine there are are unavailable because this data is not routinely collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).