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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will restrict the flow of “peace of mind” into the country after it began to flood America’s supply of illicit drugs.
Used primarily by veterinarians to tranquilize horses and cows, xylazine is now mixed with drugs like fentanyl, cocaine, and heroin as cheap cuts by dealers to heighten their effects.
The FDA will now allow imports containing xylazine or its key ingredients to be detained by shipping authorities if they fear it is being used for illegal purposes.
Tranq has devastated the homeless populations of Philadelphia, San Francisco and Rhode Island in recent months and is beginning to emerge in other parts of the country.
Its powerful sedative effects turn users into zombies, giving them painful sores as the drug devastates blood vessels, requiring amputation in extreme cases.
There is growing concern that xylazine will spread across the US. A study published in December involving 60,000 adult drug tests showed that xylazine was detected in samples from states across the country. Experts say there is concern that it is spreading in the Midwest
“The FDA remains concerned about the increasing prevalence of xylazine mixed with illicit drugs, and this action is part of the broader efforts the agency is making to address this issue,” Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said in a news release. from the FDA.
Under the new rules, transit officials will be able to stop xylazine shipments into the United States, even without examining them.
They will also be allowed to stop products that list xylazine as an ingredient and unfinished products that also use it.
Officials will then determine if they believe the shipment should be safely allowed into the nation.
The drug, sold under the brand names Rompun and Anased, works by relaxing a person’s muscles and releasing hormones in the brain that help relieve pain.
The drug has been approved for use in animals, but the Justice Department warns that its use in humans is illegal.
In the drug supply, it often cuts fentanyl and other drugs and reduces the number of times an addict needs to be vaccinated.
The drug is not an opioid, but it is often mixed with opioids, such as fentanyl, when used to augment it.
Because of this, people taking it are more difficult to treat with the drug naloxone to reverse opioid overdose.
In many cases, it leaves users ‘knocked out’ on street corners and at bus stops for hours.
When these people come to, they find that the heroin high has subsided and begin looking for their next hit.
“We recognize the public health effects of xylazine contaminating these illicit drugs and continue to ensure that the legitimate product is restricted to veterinary use only,” Dr. Tracey Forfa, director of the Center for Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, said in a statement. FDA.
Menacingly, the drug is also causing open wounds to appear on the body, often far from the injection site.
Nurses have described them to STAT News like something is ‘eating your flesh from the inside out’.
Doctors still aren’t sure what triggers the lesions in those who take the drug. One theory that is gaining ground is that the drug triggers a high level of inflammation in the body, making it difficult for wounds to heal.
It can also damage blood vessels and weaken the immune system, leaving people more vulnerable to infection.
Other effects of the drug include blurred vision, disorientation, drowsiness, and staggering. It can also lead to a coma, trouble breathing, and high blood pressure.
Many patients are left disfigured by the drug. In cases where the wound becomes infected and spreads to the bone, doctors may have no choice but to amputate a limb.
Health officials are warning of a terrifying flesh-eating drug that is increasingly laced with heroin, cocaine and other narcotics, causing a growing number of overdoses across the country. Pictured: A homeless man seen injecting himself on the streets of Kensington, Philadelphia
The drug prolongs the effects of heroin, but leaves users blacked out for hours at a time, while injection sites fester and cause excruciating wounds that spread all over the body. Pictured: Homeless people on the streets of Kensington, Philadelphia.
The drug can also cause the ‘progressive and extensive’ appearance of skin ulcers filled with dead tissue.
Philadelphia is currently at the epicenter of the US xylazine crisis. The drug has found its way into the city’s supply as a cheap and highly potent cutting agent.
It is also emerging in the drug supply of other East Coast states, including New York, Massachusetts and Maine.
And now it’s feared it’s making its way to the West Coast and Midwestern states.
Earlier this month, San Francisco reported four overdose deaths in which low levels of xylazine were found in patients’ systems.
The city’s health department said this was the “first time” they had seen evidence of the drug within the city limits.
It has been present in Puerto Rico’s drug supply for years, scientists say.
A study published in December of last year found that the drug had already reached 25 of the 35 states in which it tested samples.
These included many on the East Coast (New York, Massachusetts, and Maine, among others), the West Coast (California, Oregon, and Washington), and increasingly in the South (Texas, Louisiana, Alabama) and Midwest area.