Miguel Angel Escobar / Agencia Reforma
miércoles, 12 April 2023 | 17:18
Washington DC.- The United States has designated this microbe to xylazine, also known as a tranquil or zombie drug, an “emerging threat” in order to release funds to fight against this substance that wreaks havoc in the country.
WHAT IS THE ZOMBI DRUGS?
Xylazine is a drug authorized as a veterinary sedative and analgesic since 1972 by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It is only approved for use in animals.
Sometimes known as “tranq”, in recent years it has appeared in large numbers in supplies of illegal drugs used by humans.
It is believed that it is added to other drugs to increase the economic benefit. The authorities are trying to find out how much is deviating from its veterinary use and how much is manufactured illegally.
Although it is sometimes used with opioids, including fentanyl and other illegal laboratory drugs, it is not an opiate. Y there is no known antidote.
WHAT ARE THE CONSECUENCIAS?
Its consumption can slow down people’s breathing and heart rate to dangerous levels and cause infections that can lead to amputation of their extremities.
One of the effects of xylazine on humans is that severe cutaneous ulcers develop outside the place of injection. Repeated injections with xylazine have caused necrotic sores.
Authorities have reported that medications that are regularly used to reverse opioid overdoses, such as naloxone, may not work with xylazine.
IN INCREASE
According to doctor Rahul Gupta, director of the workshop at Casa Blanca, xylacine is increasingly common in all regions of the country.
Between 2020 and 2021, the detection of xylazine by the United States Anti-Drug Agency (DEA, for its acronym in English) increased by almost 200 per scient in the south of the country and more than 100 per scient in the west.
In 2020, 800 deaths were detected across the country, the majority of them in the northeast. One year later, more than 3 thousand deaths were present, mostly in the south, according to a report published the last year by the DEA.
The drug is part of a growing overdose crisis in the United States.
The Centers for the Control and Prevention of Diseases of the Country (CDC, for its acronym in English) estimate that more than 107,000 people died from overdoses in the 12-month period that ended on October 31, 2022. Before 2020, this cifra had never overcome the barrier of 100 thousand people.
EMERGING THREAT
The designation of Traq as an emerging threat will allow using the funds requested by President Joe Biden to Congress for the 2024 budget, Gupta said.
“We need the support of Congress. It is not a problem for democratic or republican states, it is a problem for the United States”, he insisted.
In February, the US health authorities launched an “import alert” to better control the supply of xylazine and ensure that it is intended for veterinary use.
Gupta indicated that his workshop asked for 11 million dollars of his budget to develop a strategy to address the spread of the drug.
His plans include developing an antidote, receiving more information about how to introduce illegal drugs into the supply to be able to stop it, and studying whether Congress should classify it as a controlled substance.
