'Gruesomely disfiguring' zombie drug hits the streets disguised as counterfeit opioids, worrying addiction specialists who warn of flesh-eating effects

• Xylazine, called "tranq" or "tranq dope," is a sedative used by vets that has been found in opioids.
• The "zombie" drug has flesh-rotting effects and can lead to amputations, addiction specialists warn.

A veterinary tranquilizer nicknamed "zombie drug" is being sold as a counterfeit opioid across the country, alarming addiction specialists who warn of flesh-eating effects and an overdose risk as the nation battles a drug crisis.

"I've never seen anything like what we're dealing with right now," Cary Quashen, an addiction expert from Action Family Foundation, told local news outlet KTLA.

Action Family Foundation did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Xylazine — also known as "tranq" — is a drug typically used to sedate cattle and has not been approved for human use. It has been found sold as counterfeit opioids or cut with heroin and fentanyl in Los Angeles, Long Island, Washington state, and central Pennsylvania, prompting concern over the risk of overdose and xylazine's potential to disfigure users with its flesh-eating effects.

"We had a woman come in and her sister had passed away from a fentanyl overdose," Quashen told KTLA. "But not only was it a fentanyl overdose, her skin was starting to rot — the muscles on her leg and her arm. So that's a sure sign of xylazine."

The White House announced in April that a mixture of drugs — fentanyl and xylazine — pose an "emerging threat" in the US, making the ongoing drug overdose crisis even deadlier. In March, US Drug Enforcement Administration issued a public health alert noting that the drug had been detected in about 23% of fentanyl powder and 7% of fentanyl pill seizures, CNN reported.

"It's really gruesomely disfiguring people," said Bill Bodner, a DEA special agent, told KTLA. "It's much more likely to stop someone from breathing and the things that come along with xylazine, it's a vasoconstrictor. So when you're injecting it, it's actually reducing the blood circulation."

The DEA did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Because it is not an opioid — though it is typically sold cut with or in place of one — xylazine does not respond to naloxone, an emergency treatment that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.

More than 106,000 people in the US died from a drug-involved overdose in 2021, including illicit drugs and prescription opioids, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Xylazine overdose deaths and disfigurement concerns have caught the attention of Congress, with Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, along with co-sponsors including Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, introducing a bipartisan bill in March to make xylazine a schedule III controlled substance in an attempt to reduce its availability to be used as a street drug while preserving veterinary access to the drug.

Representatives for Cortez Masto and Grassley did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

"Drug overdoses remain unacceptably high as cartels and traffickers continue to flood our nation with deadly and ever-changing poison," Grassley said in a statement introducing the legislation. "We cannot successfully prevent these tragedies with one hand tied behind our back."