Animal Sedative Tied to Overdoses Is Emerging Threat, US Says

The White House designated a veterinary tranquilizer known as xylazine as an emerging threat when mixed with fentanyl, a dangerous combination that’s showing up in more overdose deaths.

The declaration on Wednesday highlights an alarming new trend in the ongoing opioid epidemic, as it becomes increasingly common for fentanyl to be mixed with other drugs, complicating emergency life-saving treatments.

Detection of xylazine in forensic laboratory testing rose across all regions of the US over the two-year period from 2020 to 2021, growing at the highest rate of 193% in the South and 112% in the West, according to the Drug ...