DEA to announce crackdown on Xylazine, a powerful animal tranquilizer being mixed into fentanyl

By Peter Maxwell

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    DETROIT (WXYZ) — The DEA is holding a virtual press conference Tuesday announcing a crackdown on Xylazine, otherwise known as “Tranq,” on the streets.

Xylazine is a powerful animal tranquilizer that can knock out a cow with only .10ml. Recently, drug dealers have been cutting Xylazine with fentanyl making the combination deadly.

This comes as police in Kalamazoo responded to 12 overdose calls and 6 deaths in 24 hours last week.

“What we’re seeing is that Xylazine is the latest adulterant that we’re seeing being introduced into fentanyl,” Detroit Special Agent Orville Greene said.

Testing found that cocaine and an unknown substance also played a role in the overdoses

While Narcan works on reversing the deadly side effects of opioid overdoses, Xylazine is Narcan-resistant.

“It’s a non-opiate that has the opiate-like effects,” Special Agent Greene said. “However it also doesn’t respond to Narcan.”

In 2022 approximately 23% of fentanyl powder and 7% of fentanyl pills seized by the DEA contained Xylazine.

Doctor Jim Getzinger from Corewell Health says just the smallest amount of Xylazine can fully sedate a human.

“It’s basically a medically induced coma and what we have to do is breath for you which involves putting the patient on life support,” he said.

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