“Zombie Drug” Beginning to Show up in Minnesota

(KNSI) – The Minnesota Department of Health is sounding the alarm on xylazine, another potentially lethal drug that is mixed with fentanyl.

Known on the street as Tranq, it stretches black market painkillers, producing a unique high. Xylazine is a muscle relaxer and sedative used in veterinary clinics on large animals like horses and cattle.

Central Minnesota Violent Offender Task Force Commander Lucas Dingmann says it hasn’t become a critical problem in the region yet. “Specifically, in the St. Cloud area, we haven’t seen anything that’s been confirmed with xylazine yet or with any of our reports on investigations that we’ve done, but I’m sure it’s been here. It just hasn’t created any red flags or hasn’t gotten to the level that you’re seeing in those bigger cities.”

Dingmann says when a new drug hits the streets it takes a while for legal and public health authorities to catch up. Until recently, no one has been looking for the symptoms of Tranq in victims. Officials now believe xylazine killed 34 people in the state last year.

Dingmann warns that its effects are not reversed by Naloxone. “It’s more of a tranquilizer and so what happens is…commonly right now when we refer to overdoses and stuff with fentanyl, it’s an opioid which we then use Narcan to reverse the effects of the opioid. With this not being an opioid, Narcan isn’t working with this type of drug.”

In the worst-case scenario, it can result in lesions that are removed through amputation or it ends up being deadly. Called the zombie drug, the flesh-eating abscesses attack the skin and vital organs like your kidneys.

Dingmann says this area is still grappling with the deadly consequences of fentanyl. “Everybody knows this is bad stuff but they’re still using it. The drug dealers are realizing this is a bad thing but it’s a business to them and they’re making money off of it. And that’s the sad thing is, yes we’re doing all this stuff, but it’s still happening. I mean, it’s still happening to the rate as it was last year.”

Dingmann says he is stressing education among drug users, but also at school to keep young students away from what can be a matter of life and death. Xylazine adds to an already formidable threat.

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