“It’s hard, but what do you want to do when you’re addicted? said Martin, 45, an opioid addict, to AFP. Xylazine, a sedative for animals, is gaining more and more space in the drug landscape in the United States. The product accompanies another substance, fentanyl, to form the “tranq” cocktail. It can cause horrible wounds on the skin and lead to overdoses.
The American Medicines Agency (FDA) does not authorize its use in a human being. Yet it has penetrated the US illegal drug market. It was designated an “emerging threat” by the White House last April.
“A lot of times people say little bruises or black marks appear and then it’s like the tissue is dying in the affected area,” Jazmyna Fanini, a nurse at St Ann’s Corner of Harm Reduction, told AFP. . The clinic is in constant contact with people affected by overdose problems.
Inside their van, the nurses navigate the streets of the Bronx to bring medical equipment, food or clean syringes. The skin of the patients presents many wounds, sometimes deep. “Wounds can escalate to the bone. Sometimes people need an amputation or a skin graft,” she concludes.
New York City and city associations are going all out on naloxone. A nasal spray that serves as an antidote for fentanyl overdose. Xylazine, which slows heart rate and breathing, complicates the situation. The product does not have federal “controlled substance” status like hard drugs, making it difficult for investigators, according to New York Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan. “We can keep an eye on it. But even if we found a large amount of it, we couldn’t sue someone for it” and therefore “not trace it to the source,” she explains.