As with any emerging health crisis, experts emphasized the picture is still forming and more research is needed. Some patients have also described xylazine withdrawal syndrome, which researchers are still trying to parse. “We’re still looking to characterize that and see how it might need to be treated differently than fentanyl,” says Perrone.
NYC ‘gateway’ and tourist destination overrun by mentally ill, drug abusers: ‘Humanitarian crisis’
Those who ingest tranq as part of a fentanyl dose often lapse into hourslong blackouts; by the time they rouse themselves, the effects of the high have worn off, and the desperation for a new dose begins. The CDC still recommends the use of narcan in suspected intoxications involving xylazine, because it’s so often combined with opioids like fentanyl and heroin. Moreover, researchers aren’t sure what happens after the compounds in spice activate the brain’s cannabinoid receptors to cause users of the drug to lose control of their thoughts and actions, D’Souza.
Zombie Drug Tranq Can Lead to Necrosis, Amputations and Death
Saudi police found millions of the white pills stashed inside containers of pomegranates and flour in separate incidents in August 2022 and April 2023. In one of the most recent attempts, uncovered by Dubai investigators this past September, drug traffickers hid 86 million pills inside https://rehabliving.net/12-illegal-street-drugs-krokodil-molly-flakka-and/ prefabricated wooden panels and doors labeled for delivery to construction companies. Beginning around 2018, U.S. and Middle Eastern officials said, cottage-scale manufacturing of the drug in Lebanon expanded to a handful of Syrian towns in a border region north of Damascus.
Xylazine is coursing through the illicit drug supply. Here’s what it does—and why it’s not the main concern.
But by naming his brother and cousins as key facilitators, U.S. officials made clear their view that drug manufacturing in Syria is now a state enterprise. A key figure, according to Treasury Department sanctions documents, was Hassan Daqqou, a dual Syrian-Lebanese national and onetime car dealer who began buying up properties on both sides of the border for production centers and warehouses. Daqqou — dubbed the “King of Captagon” by the Lebanese news media — succeeded in building his empire through alliances with powerful friends within government and security circles in Syria and Lebanon.
Flakka Effects and “High”
- « There is no safe dose to use », it concludes, because there is an overlap between fatal and non-fatal doses of xylazine reported in people.
- Synthetic drugs known as bath salts are from the synthetic cathinone class of drugs, like flakka.
- Yet Treasury Department documents have identified close relatives of Assad — including his brother Maher al-Assad, commander of the Syrian army’s 4th Armored Division — as key participants in Captagon trafficking.
- The idea of overdose prevention sites also has merit, says Jeanmarie Perrone, founding director of the Penn Medicine Center for Addiction Medicine and Policy.
- In February, Philadelphia’s substance use prevention and harm reduction chief, Dr Andrew Best, warned that cities across America should brace for xylazine and called on the federal government to do more.
- Although synthetic cannabinoids contain THC, they don’t contain CBD, so the release of chemical messengers in the brain goes unchecked, thus creating more undesirable effects, D’Souza speculated.
O’Neil and Kovach said they had worked with several people who had successful healing of their wounds, including those with large, deep wounds requiring extensive surgeries. Outcomes for people with these wounds vary based on the site and size of the injury, the presence of infection and how quickly they present to the hospital for care. « Due to the stigma of injection drug use, people may delay seeking medical care. Because of this, I suspect this problem is even more common in the community compared to what we have glimpsed in the hospital so far, » the doctors said. The doctors treated the man’s wounds and by a six-month follow-up, they had healed well, according to the NEJM article. They also initiated buprenorphine therapy to treat the patient’s opioid-use disorder.
Mental Health Treatment
However the “zombie drug” is a serious public health issue with a far reach. Krokodil is a public health emergency in Russia; authorities say there are about 100,000 people addicted to the drug. But it is hard to accurately diagnose someone who also abuses heroin because of the similar symptoms. Krokodil (Crocodil) is a homemade version of a synthetic drug called desomorphine. As the name deso-morphine suggests, the chemical is in the opiate family and closely mimics the effects of heroin and morphine.
They may act directly on the specific receptors in the brain that can bind these chemicals, and they may change how the brain works in the short term and, potentially, the long term, Scalzo explained. Some versions of the drugs are illegal and are sold on the street, but the versions that are legal are sold in stores, where their glitzy packages marketed to young people may make them look mainstream, natural and safe, Scalzo noted. But the herbal blends, which may resemble potpourri, « can make people do what they normally would not do either to themselves or to others, » Scalzo said. Addiction is a chronic, relapsing, long-term disease, often ending with premature death. Harm reduction is important but not a cure, as more than 20% of all opioid overdose decedents received some form of naloxone.
However, the response lacked the second hypoxic phase of the oxygen response occurring with fentanyl alone, a sort of “second chance” for reversal. Also, the duration of the oxygen decrease is much longer with the drug mixture than with fentanyl alone. Hence, a major danger of xylazine plus study of controversial hallucinogen salvia shows intense opioid drugs is prolonged extreme lack of oxygen to the brain. When individuals use drugs contaminated with xylazine, they seem heavily sedated or unconscious, with droopy eyelids and a vacant gaze. Their movements and speech are slow and uncoordinated, and the person appears in a trance.
“Facilities decline patients because of their wounds, which leads to a bigger treatment gap and progression of wounds because of that barrier of waiting for a bed somewhere where someone can handle your wound problem,” says Perrone. If wounds are left untreated, it can lead to infection and further problems down the line. Here, we break down what’s happening, the main concerns that experts have about its prevalence, and why they say this scary-sounding drug isn’t the main thing they’re worried about. Xylazine was first detected as a problem around 20 years ago in Puerto Rico, but has gradually made its way across the U.S.
When someone is addicted to flakka, they can experience withdrawal symptoms without it. As cathinones are hydrophobic molecules, they can cross cell membranes and the blood-brain barrier. This allows them to interact with the monoamine transporters in the synaptic cleft between neurons. The cathinones also inhibit the reuptake of epinephrine, norepinephrine, and serotonin in the central nervous system. This is because the “comedown” after drug ingestion causes feelings of depression and being down.
Also clear is the massive scale of drug manufacturing in Syria, which U.S. officials say now produces most of the world’s Captagon supply. Administration officials say ingredients for the drug, such as amphetamine, are purchased legally from several countries, including Iran and India, and imported through Latakia. The precursor chemicals are mixed in factories and machine-pressed into tablets bearing a distinctive double-C logo. Some suggested they may have been on methadone, which is used to treat people addicted to opioids but can cause severe drowsiness.
He said these users thought the drug’s effects would be similar to those of marijuana, but they instead experienced stronger symptoms, including hallucinations, extreme agitation, a rapid heartbeat and extremely high blood pressure. Designed to mimic the effects of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in natural marijuana, the artificial substance has far more powerful effects. It was first seen in the United States in 2008, “What K2 does is puts you in a world, a delusional world, have your mind spinning,” said a man who went the twelve steps of alcoholics anonymous alcoholics anonymous only by Andrew in an interview with CBS News. “It’s mind-altering.” Synthetic pot is a mixture of dried herbs and even lawn clippings sprayed with chemicals, ground up, and either eaten or smoked. Long available in gas stations, corner stores, and head shops, this unregulated, unpredictable chemical substance is marketed as a legal high. Although authorities have made it against the law to sell, buy, or possess many of these chemicals, manufacturers sidestep the regulations by constantly changing the chemical makeup of their mixtures.
Xylazine, often referred to as Tranq or the zombie drug, has spread across America at such alarming speed that the White House has now released a new six-point action plan to tackle the crisis. Flakka is chemically similar to the street drug known as bath salts or MDPV. As with all substance abuse, those experiencing addiction to flakka should screen for co-occurring mental health conditions such as depression or anxiety. Users have reported that the drug use of flakka can trigger intense and uncontrollable urges to ingest the drug again. Although people use flakka to achieve a euphoric high, the drug’s symptoms and side effects can escalate quickly. Synthetic drugs are illicitly created to produce substances that differ slightly from legal drugs.