Lawmakers in several states are proposing bills to address the growing abuse of xylazine, a low-cost animal tranquilizer not intended for human consumption.
Xylazine, or “tranq,” can cause fainting and changes that sometimes result in grave infections or amputations and can even lead to death. The opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone does not work on xylazine, which drug dealers often find on the murky web and other illegal channels instead of buying it from veterinarians’ offices. Although xylazine is not classified by the federal government as a controlled substance, it is also not approved for utilize in humans.
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 increasing criminal penalties for possession and distribution, to legalizing test strips so people who intend to utilize the drug can make sure they are not tainted with xylazine.
Other states — Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia — have already added xylazine to their controlled substances lists, which brings more stringent controls to the storage and movement of the drug for veterinary utilize.
Shapiro Administration Temporarily Places Xylazine on Controlled Substances List | Five for the Weekend
The availability and affordability of xylazine, which can be purchased online from Chinese suppliers for between $6 and $20 per kilogram, make it an attractive option for drug dealers, he said. Federal Drug Control Agency. Xylazine is often used as an adulterant to enhance the psychoactive effects of other drugs, such as fentanyl. However, many people who utilize such drugs are unaware that xylazine has been added to them.
Public health experts and harm reduction activists who support people who utilize drugs avoid the worst outcomes warn that criminalizing xylazine or making it a controlled substance would only deepen the fear and stigma associated with the drug, isolating people who utilize it and discouraging them from seeking treatment.
“Registering drugs and making them illegal has never had any significant impact … on people actually taking drugs or on the amount of drugs that show up in the drug supply,” said Colin Miller, a community liaison and community/clinical research specialist at the University of North Carolina Street Drug Analysis Lab. “Xylazine is like the latest in a long line of cases like that.”
Danielle German, an assistant professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, agreed that tougher penalties would do more harm than good, “even if the laws are well-intentioned and intended to help.”
“It’s an increasing sense of punishment — we’ve seen time and time again that that’s what drives people away from the very resources we most want them to have access to,” German said.
State action
Still, several states have adopted a strategy of assertive action.
In South Dakota, Republican Gov. Kristi Noem signed a bill into law in February legislation classifying xylazine as a controlled substance, with fines and penalties of up to two years in prison for its utilize, manufacture and distribution, while allowing its utilize in veterinary medicine.
AND a similar bill is pending in South Carolina, where manufacturing or distributing the drug for non-veterinary purposes would result in a felony charge and up to 10 years in prison. Virginia lawmakers are considering legislation with similar penalties.
In New York State, legislation would place xylazine in the category of the most unsafe controlled substances, and its possession and distribution would result in harsher penalties.
In Indiana, a bill working its way through the legislature would criminalize possession and distribution of xylazine, with potential prison time. It would add stiffer penalties for repeat offenders. The bill would exempt veterinary utilize and distribution.
“I fully support other harm reduction methods such as [the opioid overdose-reversal drug] Narcan and test strips,” said Jennifer Meltzer, a Republican from Indiana who authored the bill. “I just think we need to go after the bad actors as well. … Hopefully, the criminal effect will deter people who are dealing and maybe even people who are just looking for xylazine right now to get the help they need.”
Another bill in Indiana would legalized test strips for all controlled substances, including xylazine, but it died in the Senate. Meltzer, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, plans to work with the bill’s lead Democratic author to get it passed in the next legislative session.
But in Wisconsin, legislation A bill legalizing xylazine test strips is awaiting the governor’s signature.
Spread of xylazine
According to data from Puerto Rico, xylazine was first detected in other drugs in the early 2000s. DEA. Now the drug can be found all over the states, although available research suggests that xylazine overdose deaths occur primarily in the eastern United States, especially the Northeast.
The University of North Carolina Street Drug Analysis Lab tests drug samples submitted by more than 150 harm reduction and syringe exchange programs in 35 states and posts those results publicly. Between January 2021 and February 2024, the lab found xylazine in lab-confirmed fentanyl samples from 15 states. Some of the samples analyzed were sent to the lab because people suspected the presence of xylazine, Miller wrote in an email to Stateline.
The states with the highest number of fentanyl samples containing xylazine were: North Carolina (148), New York (148), Michigan (66), Pennsylvania (38) and Washington (20).
You can’t say you want people to stop doing drugs and then every time I call them for a detox bed there’s not one available.
– Alixe Dittmore, National Harm Reduction Coalition
But some harm-reduction advocates and public health experts say that focusing too much on xylazine could inadvertently facilitate the entry of other, potentially more potent and harmful drugs into the illicit drug market. They warn that what states are doing now to curb xylazine utilize is repeating a strategy that has had circumscribed success with substances like fentanyl.
“Because we focused on fentanyl for so long, the drug market responded by introducing a more lethal and potent substance to adulterate it and then dominate the supply,” said Sarah Laurel, founder and executive director of Savage Sisters Recovery, a Philadelphia nonprofit that offers free services to homeless and drug-dependent people.
Philadelphia is one of the cities hit hardest by the rise in xylazine utilize. In 2022, Philadelphia Department of Public Health xylazine was found to be involved in 480, or more than a third, of the 1,413 accidental overdose deaths. Almost every death in which xylazine was found also involved fentanyl, According to to the agency.
“The same thing will happen if we focus on xylazine. They will simply find a new substance that meets the demand,” Laurel said.
Some advocates say states should focus more on expanding access to addiction treatment services and mobile drug-screening equipment, such as mass spectrometers that can analyze the components of a drug mixture.
“You can’t say we want people to stop using drugs and then every time I call for a bed for people with addiction, there’s not one,” said Alixe Dittmore, shelter and housing coordinator for the National Harm Reduction Coalition.
“We have incredibly punitive and prohibitive services,” Dittmore said. “You really have to look at it holistically when you’re concerned about how many people are dying.”
state line is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network that includes the Capital-Star, supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) charitable organization. Stateline maintains editorial independence. For questions, contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger: [email protected]. Follow Stateline on Facebook AND Twitter.
