Test strips for the flesh-eating zombie drug ‘tranq’ are being rolled out in the US to combat accidental overdoses.
Xylazine, an animal sedative nicknamed “tranq,” has become a popular adulterant for drug dealers looking to increase the supply and enhance the effect of illicit drugs such as cocaine, MDMA and heroin.
But the drug can cause fatal overdoses and leaves users with painful sores as the drug corrodes rotting flesh and leaves gaping wounds, requiring amputation in extreme cases.
The new test kits – which cost just $2 per test – are available online from BTNX and give a result in under five minutes.
Xylazine test kits were developed by Canadian company BTNX, which also produces fentanyl test strips
The DEA says xylazine has now been detected in 48 of the 50 states in the US. A study published in December involving 60,000 US adult drug tests found that xylazine was detected in samples from most states (pictured above)
The test strips will also be available to health professionals, health departments and grassroots harm reduction groups, as well as individual drug users to test substances for traces of xylazine.
Xylazine in fentanyl has been found in 48 states and up to a quarter of fentanyl tests seized are positive for the tranquilizer, with the two drugs forming a lethal combination.
Anne Milgram, of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), warned last week: “Xylazine poses the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, fentanyl, even deadlier.”
As of 2021, xylazine has been found in more than 90 percent of samples of suspected heroin or fentanyl in Philadelphia, making it the most common mixer in the local drug supply.
In light of the proliferation of xylazine-contaminated fentanyl, lateral flow test kits have been developed by the Canadian company BTNX, which also manufactures fentanyl strips.
The test strips work the same as the existing ones for fentanyl, which are small strips of paper that can detect the presence of fentanyl in all different types of drugs.
Alex Krotulski, a forensic toxicologist at the Center for Forensic Science Research & Education, a Philadelphia research lab and outreach center that recently study of the effectiveness of the strips, said: ‘It’s the exact same concept as fentanyl test strips.
“Their usefulness will really be with people using opioids who want to know if their opioids are counterfeit.”
The study found that the strips were 91 percent accurate.
A woman helps a man inject himself on the streets of Kensington, Philadelphia
Xylazine prolongs the highs of heroin and other street drugs, but leads users to pass out for hours at a time, while injection points swear and lead to horrific wounds that spread across the body. Pictured: Homeless on the streets of Kensington, Philadelphia
BTNX told STAT News the strips would cost $200 for a box of 100 tests, which is significantly more than fentanyl test strips.
This month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it would restrict the flow of “tranq” into the country.
The agency now allows imported products containing xylazine or its key ingredients to be detained by shipping authorities if they fear it will be used for illegal purposes.
Xylazine overdoses are difficult to treat because it is not an opioid, making the OD preventative naloxone ineffective.
People taking heroin or fentanyl with xylazine may be unconscious for hours or experience blurred vision, slurred speech, and disorientation.
It can also cause flesh to begin to fall away, making it look like something has “eaten away at your flesh from the inside out,” say nurses who treat patients.
Medics aren’t sure what’s causing the lesions, but say they could be caused by damage to blood vessels caused by the drug or high levels of inflammation in the body.
The gaping wounds can also become infected with the infection spreading to the bone, leaving doctors with little choice but to amputate.
Xylazine is an animal sedative that was developed in the 1960s to help veterinarians who work with cows, horses and sheep.
It has never been approved for use in humans.
But in the early 2000s, “tranq” began to show up in the illicit drug supply in the United States, initially in Puerto Rico.
In the past seven years, however, it has spread to the illicit drug trade in the rest of the country.