by Penn Health Doctors Warn About Drugs Mixed With Fentanyl
BE NEAR 90 DEGREES. ETHAN, THANK YOU. IT IS KNOWN AS TRANQ OR MEAT EATING DRUG. IT IS OFFICIALLY CALLED ZILLA. AND ALTHOUGH IT HAS BEEN USED ON LARGE ANIMALS BY VETERINARIANS FOR MANY YEARS, MORE RECENTLY IT IS BEING MIXED INTO STREET DRUGS. NEWS 8 AMBER GERARD IS LIVE IN HARRISBURG WITH MORE ABOUT THE SERIOUS DANGERS IT PRESENTS. AMBER. WELL, YOU KNOW, FOR A TIME, FENTANYL WAS THE FEAR DRUG. BUT NOW THAT XYLENE IS BECOMING A POPULAR ADDITIVE, NEW DANGERS ARE PRESENTING. AS LONG AS THERE IS A TRADE IN ILLICIT DRUGS. PEOPLE ARE CUTTING. IT WAS HEROIN, SO HEROIN CUT WITH FENTANYL. NOW A NEW DRUG IS MAKING ITS PRESENCE KNOWN. A SEDATIVE CALLED XYLENE, USED BY VETERINARIANS. ALTHOUGH IT IS NOT AN OPIOID WHEN MIXED WITH THEM, THE EFFECTS IT HAS ON THE BODY ARE NOT ONLY SERIOUS, BUT DEADLY. THEY ARE CALLING TO DECREASE HEART RATE. THEY WILL THEY WILL BREATHE SLOWLY. AND ONE ONE THAT IS MUCH MORE VISIBLE, PEOPLE WHO ARE DEALING WITH SUBSTANCE USE DISORDER AND ARE USING PSILOCYBIN OR SUFFERING THESE REALLY HORRIBLE NECROTIC SKIN INFECTIONS BECAUSE OF IT. WHEN YOU’RE MISSING A VEIN, WHEN YOU’RE INJECTING XYLENE, IT CAN CAUSE VERY SEVERE VESSEL SPASM, WHICH IS WHAT IT IS AND KINDA STARVES THE TISSUE OF OXYGEN INFECTION. SO SEVERE THAT AMPUTATION IS NECESSARY. SO WHY WOULD ANYONE CONSCIOUSLY TAKE THAT RISK? IT IS A CUTTING AGENT. THAT AGAIN, IT’S IT’S INCREASE INTOXICATION OF AN ALREADY DEADLY DRUG, AN INCREASED HIGH. THIS IS NOT SO EASY TO REVERSE. IT IS NOT AN OPIOID. AND THEREFORE DOES NOT RESPOND TO OPIOID REVERSAL AGENT LIKE NALOXONE, AKA NARCAN. IT IS SCARY. YOU KNOW, YOU SEE A PATIENT WHO IS DOWN AND YOU GIVE THEM NALOXONE AND FIND OUT THEY ARE NOT WAKE UP. AND THEN YOU HAVE TO GIVE THEM MORE NALOXONE. AND THEN THEY CAN AGREE. AND IN THAT SITUATION, DR. KAWASAKI SAID IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO TAKE THEM TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM WHERE THEY CAN KEEP AND MAKE SURE THERE IS OXYGEN GOING TO THE BRAIN AND THAT THEY ARE BREATHING. AND AS FAR AS THEY ARE GETTING THIS MEDICATION, ACCORDING TO THE DEA, ONLINE VETERINARY MEDICINE PROVIDERS MAINLY COME FROM PORT RIC
Penn Health Doctors Warn About Drugs Mixed With Fentanyl
Updated: 11:22 pm EDT on May 24, 2023
Xylazine, a tranquilizer used by veterinarians to treat large animals, is becoming more popular as an additive to fentanyl, and the dangers are presenting themselves. It is a sedative that, while not an opioid, has serious and possibly fatal side effects when mixed with fentanyl. It slows the heart rate, slows breathing and causes necrotic skin infections, according to authorities. Sometimes infections lead to amputation. “When you miss a vein by injecting xylazine, it can cause very severe spasms. It kind of deprives the tissue of oxygen,” said Dr. Health. As it is not an opioid, it is not easily reversed by Naloxone, better known as Narcan. give them more naloxone and they might wake up,” Kawasaki said.
Xylazine, a tranquilizer used by veterinarians to treat large animals, is becoming more popular as an additive to fentanyl, and the dangers are presenting themselves.
It is a sedative that, although not an opioid, has serious and possibly fatal side effects when mixed with fentanyl.
It slows the heart rate, slows breathing and causes necrotic skin infections, according to authorities. Sometimes infections lead to amputation.
“When you miss a vein by injecting xylazine, it can cause very severe spasms. It kind of deprives the tissue of oxygen,” said Dr. Sarah Kawasaki, an internal medicine physician at Penn State Health.
Because it is not an opioid, it is not easily reversed by Naloxone, better known as Narcan.
“It’s scary. You see a patient down and you give him the naloxone and you find he’s not waking up. Then you give him more naloxone and he might wake up,” Kawasaki said.
She said if someone has overdosed and it is suspected to be xylazine, take them to the hospital, keep them breathing and make sure oxygen is getting to the brain.
