Zylazine the flesh eating drug

On the streets its known as 'tranq' and is killing addicts

Zylazine was invented in 1962 and has been used as a horse tranquilizer for over fifty years. About five years ago, with the rise of fentanyl, the cartels realized that combining the two could lengthen fentanyl’s euphoric effects. The side effects, though, are so deadly that it has led to a significant increase in amputations and deaths. Why they decided to do this has been debated, as it's literally killing their customer base.

One thing that is known is that the two major cartels in the world that manufacture fentanyl are China and Mexico. The competition between the two has led to a dramatic decrease in price. Three years ago, the cost of one fentanyl pill was about five to eight dollars a piece. Last year, it dropped to one to two dollars apiece. With this price drop, the Chinese cartels decided to add xylazine and advertise that they now lasted longer.

While technically accurate, you will often nod out not for twenty minutes but for several hours. This has led to a dramatic increase in overdose deaths as the person is unconscious and a significant increase in sexual assaults. As addicts’ skins began to melt and their limbs fell off, there was a pushback, and people with addiction began specifically requesting only fentanyl from Mexico.

I go out daily, meeting and interviewing people experiencing homelessness, and the loss of a limb has become commonplace.

The homeless I have spoken to about it are mostly okay and have accepted their fate. They often share that now, with a missing limb or two, they qualify for additional services.

While they think this is true, the reality is that the services are the same, and the only difference is that they are now ten times more vulnerable.

I recently toured a recuperative care program that temporarily houses people experiencing homelessness who have recently had a limb amputated. After their short stay, they are asked to sign a form agreeing to leave for a motel for 3-5 days, then to the streets. If they don’t sign the form, they immediately go to the streets. The reason the form is signed is to protect the program. It forces the vulnerable homeless person to choose between 3-5 extra days indoors or to go outside that day.

As our addiction crisis continues to grow, we continue to not get to the root causes but continue with band-aid approaches. Services animals are regularly given not to addictions and suffer far more than people realize. I do not support ever giving a service animal to an active addict. They are incapable of taking care of themselves and have not earned the right to care for another living thing. This is a crisis and the only way to solve it is to treat it like one.