But by 2020, the drug was linked to 6.7% of overdose deaths, with the highest percentages in Philadelphia, Maryland and Connecticut. By 2019, research found xylazine involved in 1 in 3 opioid-related fatal overdoses in the city.Ī study published this month in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence found that in 10 places across the country, xylazine was involved in just 0.36% of overdose deaths in 2015. Horse tranquilizer is hitting the US as a dangerous street drugĪ study of overdose death records in Philadelphia between 20 traced xylazine in 2% of opioid-related overdose deaths.
This undated photo provided by the Philadelphia Department of Public Health shows discarded boxes of xylazine seized in a raid. Connecticut has released reports on it we see it in Michigan, all around the country, even in Canada,” Dasgupta said. “Some very eagle-eyed street chemists in Philadelphia picked up on this early. It has heavy sedative effects like an opioid, but it isn’t an opioid, and it doesn’t respond to the opioid overdose antidote, naloxone. One study of drug samples collected in Vermont and Kentucky found multiple active components in at least 89% of drugs sold as opioids or cocaine.Īnalysis of drugs seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration at or near the southwest border has found drugs to contain just 5% to 10% of what they claim and often include adulterants or cutting agents like acetaminophen, benzocaine and xylazine. “When you look at each individual death record, when you look at the actual files and the actual chemical analysis, you see other peaks in there … which are definitely not fentanyl and are these other contaminants that are in the drug supply,” explained Dasgupta, who has been studying drug use and infectious diseases for over two decades.Īccording to the CDC, about half of drug overdose deaths involved multiple drugs in 2019, the most recent year for which data is available.īut detecting what drugs were involved in an overdose isn’t always easy. US drug overdose deaths reach another record high as deaths from fentanyl surge (Photo by Don EMMERT / AFP) (Photo by DON EMMERT/AFP via Getty Images) Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images Fentanyl, a powerful painkiller approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for a range of conditions, has been central to the American opioid crisis which began in the late 1990s. That accounts for 46 percent of all fatal overdoses. According to US government data, about 32,000 Americans died from opioid overdoses in 2018.
A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) chemist checks confiscated powder containing fentanyl at the DEA Northeast Regional Laboratory on Octoin New York.
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