Americans are being warned that a dangerous animal tranquilizer could be lurking in illegal street drugs.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a warning about xylazine, which is showing up in a growing number of toxicology reports after fatal overdoses.
Xylazine is not approved for human consumption and is typically used as a sedative or painkiller for cows and horses in veterinary medicine.
The FDA warns in people it can cause ‘serious and life-threatening side effects that appear to be similar to those commonly associated with opioid use’.
Yet xylazine is increasingly being used by drug dealers as a cutting agent in heroin, meth, cocaine and opioids, the federal agency told stakeholders in a letter Tuesday.
The alert warned that it can be ‘difficult to distinguish’ a xylazine overdose from opioid overdose — both cause the lungs to start failing.
But unlike opioids, xylazine overdoses cannot be curtailed with naloxone, the emergency opioid overdose reversal drug.
