'Zombie drug' smuggled across southern border a growing threat to Americans, doctor warns

A tranquilizer commonly referred to arsenic a "zombie drug" is being manufactured and smuggled crossed the U.S. confederate border, according to a doc who has spent years studying it. 

The cause xylazine, known arsenic "tranq" successful thoroughfare lingo, is utilized arsenic a tranquilizer by veterinarians. 

In the 2010s, the cause made its mode to the streets astir exclusively by being stolen from veterinarians and was peculiarly prevalent connected the East Coast. Now, it is being manufactured and coming from abroad, and its footprint could dramatically scale. 

"There's grounds of it being imported into the U.S. done the confederate borderline and besides grounds of diversion of home veterinary supply," Dr. Joseph Friedman, who has studied xylazine for years, told Fox News Digital.

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Fentanyl users connected the streets of Los Angeles successful December 2024 (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

While Friedman says helium doesn't cognize what proportionality of the cause is being smuggled versus stolen from veterinarians successful the U.S., his latest study, published successful January, shows the drug's prevalence successful Tijuana and confederate California. 

"Our survey showed it being mixed into fentanyl successful Tijuana, Mexico, specifically, and it's besides contiguous successful San Diego and confederate California much broadly," helium said. 

"The accomplishment of xylazine-fentanyl co-use to the North American overdose situation has been highly notable, and xylazine has been identified arsenic an emerging menace by the authorities of the U.S., Chile, by the Organization of American States, and much precocious by Mexico," the survey says.

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Homeless radical are seen arsenic San Francisco fights fentanyl problems connected May 16, 2024. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The cause leaves users successful a "zombie-like" authorities arsenic it constricts humor vessels and cuts disconnected oxygen travel to the body, causing abscesses that rot the flesh. 

The cause is besides uniquely unsafe due to the fact that it does not respond to naloxone, which is utilized to counteract opioid overdoses, and erstwhile the cause is detected, it is astir ever detected with the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl. 

"It's astir exclusively utilized unneurotic with fentanyl to augment it, astir ne'er by itself," Friedman said. 

In fact, successful much than 98% of xylazine detections, it is detected alongside fentanyl, according to a 2022 survey helium published.

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That survey showed xylazine beingness successful overdose deaths had jumped from 3.6% successful 2015 to 6.7% successful 2020. 

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey published successful 2022 concluded that xylazine prevalence successful opioid deaths had accrued from 2.9% successful January 2019 to 10.9% successful June 2022.

Xylazine from a veterinary practice (Fox News)

Fox News Digital reached retired to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. 

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The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) issued a nationalist information alert astir the cause successful 2023.

"Xylazine is making the deadliest cause menace our state has ever faced, fentanyl, adjacent deadlier," the DEA said astatine the time. "The DEA has seized xylazine and fentanyl mixtures successful 48 of 50 states. The DEA Laboratory System is reporting that successful 2022, astir 23% of fentanyl pulverization and 7% of fentanyl pills seized by the DEA contained xylazine."

Fox News' Melissa Rudy contributed to this report.