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What is xylazine, the veterinary sedative being found in the U.S. drug supply?

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[ad_1] Animal tranquillizer xylazine sweeping Kensington streets Animal tranquillizer xylazine sweeping Kensington streets 06:05 It extends the feeling of an opiate high. It's hard to detect and can't be reversed by medications like Narcan. It's immediately recognizable by the gruesome, scaly wounds that emerge on users' skin, and can even cause injuries to their lungs. And in some parts of the United States, experts say it's in as much as 90% of the drug supply.  It's a veterinary sedative called xylazine , and experts and officials are racing to figure out where it's coming from and how to help people who are taking it, even as it's increasingl

Overdose deaths from fentanyl combined with xylazine surge in some states, CDC reports

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[ad_1] The number of fentanyl overdose deaths that also include xylazine — an animal tranquilizer increasingly mixed into the illicit drug supply — have surged around the country in recent years, new data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirm, with xylazine now showing up in more than a quarter of fentanyl deaths from some states. Xylazine, also known as "tranq," is a powerful sedative that is not approved for any use in humans. It does not respond to overdose-reversing medications like Narcan, and it is known for causing gruesome skin wounds in users. The new figures, published Thursday in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, offer the biggest window to date into the growing toll from xylazine's rapid ascent in the illegal U.S. drug supply through last year. Across 31 states and the District of Columbia which had enough data reported to the CDC on toxicology reports from ov