Test strips that detect a deadly animal tranquilizer cut into fentanyl and cocaine are being moved to market amid fears of a new nationwide drug epidemic.
Xylazine — known on the street as “tranq,” “tranq dope” and “zombie drug” — is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for veterinary use, but is unsafe for human consumption as it causes flesh-rotting sores and respiratory failure.
Additionally, the tranquilizer does not respond to the overdose-reversing aid Narcan, meaning it has potentially lethal consequences as it spreads to 48 out of 50 states, according to a “widespread threat” alert from the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
Despite those dangers, drug dealers have been using xylazine as an “extremely cheap” cutting agent in fentanyl, cocaine and heroin in recent months, sparking alarm in NYC and across the country, NYC’s Special Narcotics Prosecutor Bridget Brennan told The Post.
However, there are now hopes the new test strips — which cost about $2 a piece — can help mitigate the growing “tranq” crisis.
The Rapid Response Xylazine Test Strip is being distributed by Canada-based company BTNX following a study that found it had a 91 percent accuracy rate.
“It’s the exact same concept as fentanyl test strips,” Alex Krotulski, a forensic toxicologist at the Center for Forensic Science Research & Education, stated in a new report published by Stat.
“Their utility is really going to be among people who are using opioids who want to know if their opioids are adulterated,” he added.
The tests are priced at $200 per box of 100, with a BTNX official telling Stat that the strips are already being shipped out.
“Using the same model we currently employ for our fentanyl strips, we are capable of producing, warehousing, and shipping the Rapid Response Xylazine Test Strip to match the demand of the market,” the BTNX rep stated.
The Post has reached out to the company for further detail as to how American consumers will be able to purchase the product. It’s unclear whether they’ll be on shelves at drug stores or whether they will need to be obtained online or through a medical provider.
Recently, xylazine has started to be mixed with fentanyl as an inexpensive way to make highs last longer. It is already being blamed for hundreds of overdose deaths.
It has been detected in fentanyl in 48 states amid the “disgraceful” opioid epidemic killing up to 300 Americans per day.
Last week, the DEA issued an urgent public safety alert over the rapid spread of the animal tranquilizer, saying: “Xylazine is making the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, fentanyl, even deadlier.”
“The DEA laboratory system is reporting that in 2022 approximately 23% of fentanyl powder and 7% of fentanyl pills seized contained xylazine,” the alert continued, proving just how popular the drug has become as a mixing agent.
“People who inject drug mixtures containing xylazine also can develop severe wounds, including necrosis — the rotting of human tissue — that may lead to amputation,” the DEA added.
Doctors are unsure why the wounds occur and fester, but the skin ulcers may be attributable to blood-vessel damage caused by the drug.
Xylazine is also posing a specific threat to New York.
On Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the animal tranquilizer has already been responsible for dozens of deaths in the Empire state.
Last Monday, Special Narcotics Prosecutor Brennan told the City Council Committee on Public Safety: “Xylazine is increasingly linked to overdose deaths in New York City. It has been present in the city for over a year and is now beginning to saturate the street market.”
Brennan also revealed that officers uncovered more than 44 pounds of fentanyl cut with the “extremely cheap to purchase” xylazine during a recent money laundering raid in Queens.
“We see it in our bulk seizures, as well as in user-ready glassines sold on the street,” Brennan told The Post. “It is usually found mixed with fentanyl [but] mixtures may also contain other drugs, like cocaine.”