CNN (6/29, Kounang, McPhillips) reports, “The Biden administration recently declared fentanyl laced with xylazine – an animal sedative commonly known as ‘tranq’ – to be an emerging threat facing the United States, and a new analysis of toxicology reports illustrates its sharp rise,” according to data published June 30 in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The report reveals that “in June 2022, xylazine was present in nearly 11% of fentanyl overdose deaths, almost a four-fold increase from January 2019, when the combination was present in about 3% of cases.”
NBC News (6/29, Edwards) reports, “Tranq is increasingly found laced in the illegal supply of fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid blamed for 70,601 overdose deaths in 2021, according to the” NIDA. This past March, “the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration warned about a growing threat from the drug combination, often called ‘tranq dope,’ saying that the DEA had seized xylazine and fentanyl mixtures in 48 of 50 states.”
Related Links:
— “Xylazine present in more than 1 in 10 fentanyl overdose deaths in the US,” Deidre McPhillips and Nadia Kounang, CNN, June 29, 2023