Los Angeles authorities are grappling with the alarming proliferation of the flesh-eating drug called xylazine, commonly referred to as the “zombie drug,” in the city.
Although originally a veterinary tranquilizer for cows and horses, it has made its way into the illicit drug market in the US.
Dealers often mix it with cocaine, heroin, or particularly dangerous, the potent synthetic opioid fentanyl, which is responsible for thousands of American deaths annually.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s officials are facing a challenge as xylazine is technically a legal substance.
The county is now making urgent efforts to monitor and track the presence of xylazine across the city in collaboration with local authorities.
Disturbing footage captured by news crews shows individuals in a hunched and incapacitated state after consuming the drug.
The DEA and the county’s health department have both issued urgent warnings against the use of the drug.
‘When combined with opioids like fentanyl, as is frequently the case, xylazine enhances the life-threatening effect of respiratory depression (slowing or stopping breathing) caused by opioids, increasing the risk of overdose and death,’ county officials said.
Tracking the drug, officials say, will allow them to get a sense of just how bad the problem is and the best practices to cut it out.
Nurses have described the wounds caused by xylazine as appearing as though something is ‘eating away your flesh from the inside out’.
Various liberal politicians and city leaders have attempted to implement numerous policies to curb the many issues that have arisen due to the swelling homeless and drug-addicted population.
One specific harm reduction policy that failed was the opening of the Tenderloin Center in San Francisco last year – a facility that was meant to help alleviate the city’s drug and homelessness crisis.
It cost taxpayers a whopping $22million and was meant to be a ‘safe place’ for addicts to ‘get high without getting robbed’ and without fear of fatally overdosing.
Users were also meant to be directed to help centers, though during its first four months of operations, it referred just 18 people of the more than 23,000 who were welcomed to the site.