In some states, lawmakers are introducing bills to curb the increasing abuse of xylazine, a low-cost animal tranquilizer not intended for human consumption.
Xylazine, or “tranq,” can cause fainting and injuries that sometimes lead to solemn infections or amputations and can even result in death. The opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone is not effective against xylazine, which drug dealers often obtain through the gloomy web and other illegal channels rather than from veterinary offices. Although xylazine is not classified as a controlled substance by the federal government, it is also not approved for human utilize.
Several states, including Indiana, New York, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia and Wisconsin, are currently considering bills to this effect. The proposed legislation ranges from classifying xylazine as a controlled substance to tougher penalties for possession and distribution to legalizing test strips so drug users can be sure their drugs are not contaminated with xylazine.
Other states – Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia – have already added xylazine to their lists of controlled substances, resulting in stricter controls on the storage and transportation of the drug for veterinary utilize.
The availability and affordability of xylazine, which can be purchased online from Chinese suppliers for $6 to $20 per kilogram, make it an attractive option for drug traffickers, according to the Federal Agency for the Control of Drugs. Xylazine is often used as a cutting agent to enhance the psychoactive effects of other drugs such as fentanyl. However, many people who utilize such drugs are unaware that xylazine has been added.
Public health experts and harm reduction advocates who work with drug users to assist them avoid the worst consequences warn that criminalizing xylazine, or classifying it as a controlled substance, will only augment the fear and stigma associated with the drug, isolating users and discouraging them from seeking treatment.
“The classification of drugs and their illegalization has never had a significant impact … on the people who actually use drugs or on the amount of drugs that show up in the drug trade,” said Colin Miller, community outreach officer and social/clinical research specialist at the University of North Carolina’s Street Drug Analysis Lab. “Xylazine is just the latest example in a long line of such examples.”
Danielle German, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, agreed that increasing penalties would do more harm than good, “even if the legislation is well-intentioned and intended to help.”
“We have seen time and time again that this heightened sense of punishment keeps people away from the resources we desperately want them to access,” German said.
State action
Nevertheless, several states are pursuing a challenging line.
In South Dakota, Republican Governor Kristi Noem signed the bill in February legislation Classification of xylazine as a controlled substance, with fines and prison sentences of up to two years for the utilize, manufacture and distribution of the drug; its utilize in veterinary medicine is still permitted.
A similar invoice is pending in South Carolina, where manufacturing or distributing the drug for non-veterinary purposes would result in a felony charge and a prison sentence of up to 10 years. Virginia lawmakers are considering legislation with similar penalties.
In the state of New York legislation would place xylazine in the category of most unsafe controlled substances, with both possession and distribution carrying more severe penalties.
In Indiana, a bill is currently being passed that would criminalize the possession and distribution of xylazine, possibly with prison sentences. Repeat offenders will be punished more severely. Use and distribution for veterinary purposes are exempt from the bill.
“I fully support other ways of minimising harm, such as [the opioid overdose-reversal drug] Narcan and test strips,” said Indiana Republican Rep. Jennifer Meltzer, the bill’s author. “I just think we need to go after the bad guys, too. … A criminal impact will hopefully deter people who are dealing xylazine or maybe even people who are now just looking for xylazine to get the assist they need.”
Another bill in Indiana would have legalized Test strips for all controlled substances, including xylazine, were introduced, but the proposal failed in the Senate. Meltzer, one of the bill’s co-authors, plans to work with the lead Democratic author of this bill to get it passed in the next legislative session.
But in Wisconsin, legislation to legalize xylazine test strips awaits the governor’s signature.
Distribution of xylazine
Xylazine was first detected in other drugs in Puerto Rico in the early 2000s, according to the DeaNow the drug is available in all states, although available research suggests that deaths from xylazine overdose occur primarily in the eastern United States, particularly in the northeast.
The University of North Carolina’s Street Drug Analysis Lab tests drug samples sent in by over 150 harm reduction and needle exchange programs from 35 states and publicly releases those results. Between January 2021 and February 2024, the lab found xylazine in lab-confirmed fentanyl samples from 15 states. Some of the samples analyzed were sent to the lab because people suspected the presence of xylazine, Miller wrote in an email to Stateline.
The states with the highest number of fentanyl samples testing positive for xylazine are North Carolina (148), New York (148), Michigan (66), Pennsylvania (38), and Washington (20).
You can’t say you want people to stop using drugs and then every time I call for a detox bed there isn’t one there.
– Alixe Dittmore, Housing and Shelter Capacity Building Coordinator at the National Harm Reduction Coalition
However, some harm reduction advocates and health experts argue that too much focus on xylazine could inadvertently facilitate the entry of other, potentially more potent and harmful drugs into the illicit drug market. They warn that current federal measures to curb xylazine utilize are a repeat of a strategy that has had circumscribed success with substances such as fentanyl.
“Because we’ve focused on fentanyl for so long, the criminal drug market responded by adulterating it with a more deadly and potent substance and then dominating the supply,” says Sarah Laurel, founder and executive director of Savage Sisters Recovery, a Philadelphia nonprofit that provides free assist to the homeless and drug addicts.
Philadelphia is one of the cities most affected by the rise in xylazine utilize. In 2022 Philadelphia Health Department The study found that xylazine played a role in 480 of the 1,413 unintentional overdose deaths. Fentanyl was also involved in almost every death in which xylazine was found. after to the agency.
“The same thing will happen if we go back to xylazine. They will simply find a new substance that will meet the demand,” Laurel said.
Some advocates say instead that states should focus more on expanding access to treatment services for drug addicts and to mobile drug-screening devices, such as mass spectrometers that can analyze the ingredients of a drug mixture.
“You can’t say you want people to stop using drugs and then every time I call for a rehab place, there aren’t any available,” says Alixe Dittmore, who works to build shelters and housing for the National Harm Reduction Coalition.
“We have incredibly punitive and prohibitive services,” Dittmore said. “You really have to look at this holistically when you’re concerned about how many people are dying.”
