Outbreak of overdoses has Midlands officials warning public about effects of ‘Tranq’
A recent breakout of overdoses in one Midlands county has health officials warning the public about the dangers of the “zombie drug.”
The Clarendon County Sheriff’s Office recently shared a post from Clarendon Behavioral Health Services regarding at least eight recent drug overdoses.
The overdoses happened in the span of the past week, health officials said. They involved the overdose victims taking a “blue pill” containing xylazine, according to the post.
Xylazine is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in animals as a sedative and pain reliever, but is not safe for use in humans, according to the FDA.
The drug is also called “tranq,” “tranq dope” and “zombie drug,” according to The New York Times.
Xylazine is not an opioid, and it’s often mixed with other drugs, according to Clarendon health officials.
Because xylazine isn’t an opioid, Narcan does not help overdose victims. Narcan, which is the name of a popular brand of the drug Naloxone, can be administered as a nasal spray or as an injection for patients suffering from an overdose, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said.
But xylazine’s effects are similar to those associated with opioid use, making it difficult to distinguish opioid overdoses from xylazine exposure, the FDA said.
Xylazine is commonly mixed with fentanyl, as well as cocaine and heroin, to increase the effects of those narcotics, the Drug Enforcement Administration said.
This mixture can be deadly, health officials said.
Information about the recent overdoses in Clarendon County, and if any or all were fatal, was not available.
Two of the eight overdoses involved children, health officials said.
Xylazine is often mixed with other drugs without the user’s knowledge, according to Clarendon County officials.
Xylazine powder can be purchased online from Chinese suppliers with prices commonly ranging from $6-$20 dollars per kilogram, according to the DEA. At that price, it’s become popular among drug traffickers, as its psychoactive effects allow them to reduce the amount of fentanyl or heroin used in a mixture, the DEA said.
The FDA said routine toxicology screens do not detect xylazine, and additional techniques are required to reveal its presence in overdoses. Despite that, the number of fatal overdoses where xylazine was detected in the South increased by more than 1,000% from 2020 (116) to 2021 (1,423), according to the DEA.
There are other impacts from xylazine use that give the look of rotting flesh, Fox News reported. Xylazine causes wounds, and if untreated, they can lead to amputation, according to The New York Times.
“When you’re in a group of three or four people, you can smell rotting flesh, and you know that at least one of them is suffering from these open sores. It almost looks like the walking dead, zombies,” Frank Rodriguez, a business owner in Philadelphia where xylazine use has spiked, said in an interview with Fox News.
“Please talk to your kids and loved ones,” Clarendon health officials said. “If we can help in any way, please call our office at 803-435-2121.”
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