Xylazine What is Xylazine and Why Should I Care? Xylazine is a strong tranquilizer used in veterinary medicine that has been showing up in heroin, fentanyl, and speedballs in many parts of the U.S. In 2019, about a third of overdose deaths in Philadelphia involved xylazine (and all that involved xylazine also involved fentanyl). Over the past decade, it’s also been confirmed or suspected to be in drug supplies in lots of other places, including Puerto Rico, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Illinois, Ohio, and Kentucky, with reports increasing throughout 2020. The effects of xylazine look a lot like the effects of heroin, fentanyl, and other opioids–muscle relaxation, pain relief, slowed breathing, contracting pupils, and drowsiness–but it’s not an opioid, so naloxone doesn’t work on it like it would on heroin, fentanyl, pain pills, and methadone.
What does xylazine look like? Xylazine itself is a white powder, but in a 2012 study done with people using xylazine in Puerto Rico, study participants reported that powder heroin and speedballs containing xylazine had a distinct, dark brown color. They also said that it had a strong, medicine-like smell and taste. Xylazine overdose looks really
NEXT Distro STAY ALIVE , STAY SA FE .
similar to opioid overdose: slowed or shallow breathing, unresponsiveness, and lowered heart rate are all symptoms.
What else should I know about xylazine? People who use xylazine have reported developing painful skin ulcers–both at the injection site and elsewhere. If you develop an ulcer, do your best to keep it clean and covered, and seek medical attention if it swells, gets bigger, or starts to ooze.
Can I detect xylazine with fentanyl test strips? Unfortunately not. Since xylazine isn’t an opioid, it isn’t fentanyl or a fentanyl analogue– so a fentanyl test strip won’t be able to tell you if there is xylazine in your drug.
What do I do if I think someone I’m with is overdosing on xylazine? If you have naloxone on hand, use it! While naloxone doesn’t work on xylazine, it’s important to remember that all the overdose deaths involving xylazine in Philadelphia in 2019 also involved fentanyl, so trying to reverse the impacts of any potential opioids is a good first step here. If naloxone isn’t working, call 911 or go to the ER for medical attention if you haven’t already. If you can rescue breathe for the
www.nextdistro.org | SMS/Signal 646-389-0752 | Reddit /u/nextdistro | Email info@nextdistro.org