Healthcare

Flesh-Rotting Drug Plaguing West Coast Cities Surges Into Eric Adams’ NYC

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A deadly drug that causes the user’s flesh to rot has made its way to New York City from the West Coast, according to a report by the New York Post.

“Tranq,” a street name used for xylazine, an animal tranquilizer, is delivered to the Big Apple via trucks, the Post reported. Once in New York City, the xylazine is then cut into other drugs, including fentanyl, heroin and cocaine.

Xylazine, which can cause skin lesions and flesh to become necrotic and rot, is involved in as much as one-fifth of the overdose deaths in New York City, according to the Post, where drug users try to avoid the drug. The drug has plagued cities on the West Coast, where Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California was forced to alter his counter-narcotics policy, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Tranq invades NYC drug mills, expert calls city’s drugs ‘most dangerous’ ever https://t.co/1fIy73b6Zh pic.twitter.com/sGIefl7I0c

— New York Post (@nypost) July 10, 2023

Deaths from fentanyl laced with xylazine have increased from 2.9% of all fatal overdoses in January 2019 to 10.9% in June 2022, according to the Chronicle Chronicle

Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown told the Post that the city’s “safe injection” centers might not be able to handle the bad effects of “tranq,” which cannot be treated with naloxone.

“It’s much better to put people on methadone maintenance, or even heroin maintenance, and allow them to buy a supply rather than risking overdose and the necrotic effect,” Felbab-Brown told the Post.

Overdoses killed over 100,000 Americans in 2021, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One kilogram of fentanyl can reportedly kill up to a half-million people, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency.