INDIANAPOLIS – Legislators in a handful of states are offering bills to address the rise in the misuse of xylazine, a cheap animal sedative not intended for human consumption.
Xylazine, or “tranq,” can induce blackouts and cause lesions that sometimes result in severe infections or amputations, and it can even lead to death. The opioid overdose-reversal drug naloxone does not work on xylazine, which drug dealers often find through the dark web and other illicit channels, rather than getting it from veterinary offices. Although the federal government doesn’t classify xylazine as a controlled substance, it also isn’t approved for human use.
Several states including Indiana, New York, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, and Wisconsin are considering bills. The legislation ranges from classifying xylazine as a controlled substance to stiffening criminal penalties for possession and distribution, as well as legalizing testing strips so people who intend to take drugs can make sure they aren’t tainted by xylazine.
Other states — Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia — have already added xylazine to their lists of controlled substances, which adds tighter controls to the storage and movement of the drug for veterinary use.
The accessibility and affordability of xylazine, which can be bought online from Chinese suppliers for $6 to $20 per kilogram, make it an attractive option for drug traffickers, according to the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration. Xylazine is frequently used as an adulterant to enhance the psychoactive effects of other drugs, such as fentanyl. Yet many people who use such drugs don’t realize that xylazine has been mixed in.
Public health experts and harm reduction advocates, who work with people who use drugs to help them avoid the worst outcomes, warn that criminalizing xylazine or categorizing it as a controlled substance will exacerbate the fear and stigma associated with the drug, isolating people who use it and discouraging them from seeking treatment.
“Scheduling drugs and making things illegal has never had any meaningful effect … on people ingesting drugs or the amount of drugs showing up in the drug supply,” said Colin Miller, the community liaison and social/clinical research specialist at the University of North Carolina Street Drug Analysis Lab. “Xylazine is just like the latest of these examples.”
Danielle German, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, agreed that ratcheting up penalties will do more harm than good, “even if the legislation is coming from a place of good and wanting to help.”
Nevertheless, several states are embracing a get-tough approach. In Indiana, a bill sent to Gov. Eric Holcomb for his signature criminalizes the possession and distribution of xylazine, with a potential punishment of jail time. The misdemeanor offense would rise to a felony with steeper penalties for repeat offenders. The bill exempts use and distribution for veterinary purposes.
Read the entire Amanda Hernandez story for the Indiana Chronicle, here.
