The Biden administration believes that the cocktail is a deadly national threat
Vaccines against xylazine, a new drug problem, and the public health threat of fentanyl and other synthetic drugs
“Xylazine is one of the contaminants in fentanyl, but there could be others,” Gupta said. “So, I think with the declaration of an emerging threat, we’re sending a clear message to producers and traffickers of illicit xylazine and illicit fentanyl that we’re going to respond quicker, we’re going to match the challenge of evolution of these drugs supply, and that we’re going to protect lives first and foremost.”
“I’m deeply concerned about what this threat means for the nation,” said Dr. Rahul Gupta, head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Gupta told reporters ahead of the announcement that the Biden administration will inform Congress about the public health threat and will lay out a plan to fight it over the next 90 days.
Gupta has been working on the front lines of the crisis for a long time. He said the threat that this latest mix of drugs could make things even worse is alarming.
There has been a huge increase of fatal overdoses that have been linked to xylazine in the southern part of the country.
“I think it’s a tremendous public health risk,” said Dr. Stephanie Ann Deutsch, a pediatrician who treats kids exposed to drugs at the Nemours Children’s Hospital in Delaware.
Deutsch published a paper in December warning other pediatricians about her experience struggling to treat young children sickened by fentanyl and xylazine.
In the coming months, the Biden administration’s response is expected to include more testing to identify where xylazine is prevalent in the street drug supply.
He said it’s also likely the government will consider further regulations for xylazine, which is used legally by veterinarians as an animal tranquilizer.
It may be good for congress to increase criminal penalties as police try to crack down on street drugs with xylazine.
Maritza Perez Medina with the Drug Policy Alliance said that she is worried that more arrests are going to result from the growing fears about synthetic drugs.
“We’re really targeting people who could benefit from health services,” Perez Medina told NPR. “That’s my overall concern with the direction the federal government is taking, specifically Congress with criminalizing these emergent substances.”
“This drug, which is an animal sedative, is being mixed with fentanyl and is being found in almost all 50 states now,” Gupta said Tuesday. “It’s become an important part for us to make sure that we’re declaring it an emerging threat.”
In order to tackle the nation’s drugs problem, the president has urged Congress to invest $46.1 billion into agencies overseen by the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
If the budget request is not passed, there could be an opportunity to reallocate money from the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which is important in saving lives. That’s the reason we’re asking Congress to act.
Such funds could be used to test drugs on the street for xylazine, collect data on FAAX, invest in care for people exposed to FAAX and develop potential treatments for a xylazine-related overdose.
The medication naloxone, also known as Narcan, is an antidote for an opioid overdose, but people who have overdosed on a combination of opioids and xylazine may not immediately wake up after taking naloxone, as it may not reverse the effects of xylazine in the same way it does opioids.
The New Science: Detecting, Controlling, and Preventing Irregular Syntheses of Anomalous Compounds in the United States
“We need to recognize, first of all, that there is a shift that is occurring from organic compounds and substances like heroin and cocaine to more synthetics,” Gupta said of the state of the nation’s illicit drug crisis.
“All of a sudden, you can synthesize hundreds of compounds and kind of mix them together and see what does the best in the market,” Joseph Friedman, a researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, told CNN in March. “People are synthesizing new benzodiazepines, new stimulants, new cannabinoids constantly and adding them into the drug supply. So people have no idea what they’re buying and what they’re consuming.”
Some of these adulterants may be as simple as sugar or artificial sweeteners added for taste or additives or fillers that bulk up the drug. Sometimes, they may be contaminants left over from the manufacturing process.
According to Naburan, all of these things can cause real-life health harms.
Lowering the level of abuse of xylazine will be done by giving law enforcement more authority to crack down on the illegal distribution of the drug, as well as stiffening penalties for criminals who bring this drug to our communities.
The bill would force manufacturers to send reports to the DEA about the production and distribution of their product, so the agency can keep it out of the black market.
