A new injection drug is invading the narcotics market. Is called salvationand is a animal anesthetic which, like the ketaminehas made its way in recent years also in the world of substances of abuse. Starting from the United States, where the never-ending opioid crisis continues to fuel consumption (and deaths from overdoses: more than 100,000 in 2021 alone), it has now also reached the European market, with the first death ascertained linked to the consumption of xylazine, just described in the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, which took place in December last year in the United Kingdom. In this case, the danger is subtle, and for two reasons. The first is that it is often used for cut heroin e fentanyl, in order to reduce costs, unbeknownst to consumers, who, not being used to them, risk overdosing; the second are the dangerous ones side effects related to chronic use: ulcerations, grazes e infections from the skin which can lead to the amputation of arm e legsso horrible as to have earned the substance the nickname of “dear zombie” (already used in the past, to tell the truth, for desomorphine, or krokodil, which is widespread in Russia).
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Anesthetic for horses, emetic for cats
The salvation is an anesthetic drug developed in the early 60s by Bayern. Human trials soon revealed that the substance had dangerous effects, which ranged from the drop in pressure at the depression respiratoryand was therefore destined for the veterinary market: as a tranquilizer, analgesic and sedative, especially in large animals such as cattle o horsesand how emeticoespecially in the gatti.
Recreational use only became established many years after xylazine’s arrival on the veterinary market. According to the reconstruction of New York Times originated in all likelihood in Puerto Ricoas a substitute for heroin in rural areas of the country. Indeed, a 2011 study describes a growing use of what residents termed “horse anesthesia”, with a consequent growth of problems such as ulcerations and skin wounds in consumers.
Side effects of the pandemic
In the United States, human consumption of salvation as early as the mid-2000s, especially in areas like the neighborhood Kensington Of Philadelphia, which are home to a large Puerto Rican population. And from 2018 but that has really started to spread, in a cocktail which includes heroin and/or fentanyl, colloquially called “trans” o “tranq dope”, and thanks to the pandemic, consumption has reached epidemic proportions in the air of Philadelphia and throughout the Northeastern United States. Consumption seems to be driven, on the one hand, by the ease with which the substance can be obtained, given that it is not inserted between controlled ones dal government federaland it is possible to obtain it with a trivial one veterinary prescription. On the other hand, the price: it is much cheaper than heroin and guarantees large profits as a cutting substance, and also more affordable prices for consumers, given that a dose of trans it just costs cinque dollarsagainst i 10 of a dose of heroin.
The result is that currently over the 90% of heroin samples tested in Philadelphia contain traces of xylazine. In New York the 25%. The substance is now present in consignments of drugs seized in 36 US states, and the real prevalence is believed to be even higher, given that it is not a substance that is routinely searched for in drug checkpoints or drug assistance centers. Similar speech also in Europaand for this the case intercepted in United Kingdom could only represent the tip of the iceberg of the European market salvation. Also because the use of this substance also seems to be linked to the ability to influence the action of synthetic opioids as the fentanylmaking its effects more similar to those of traditional heroin (increasingly difficult to find, even in Europe), and therefore more desirable for consumers.
To the zombie drug
The dangers posed by the spread of salvation for consumers of injection drugs they are linked, as we said, to two aspects. The first is that like the synthetic opioidshas effects and tolerance levels different from those ofpure heroin. And can therefore cause easily unintentional overdoseespecially in consumers who are not aware of the presence of this substance in the drug cocktail they have purchased, or even deaths related to their side effects, mainly bradycardia (reduced heart rate) e depression respiratory.
However, the most blatant and dramatic effects are those linked to chronic consumption. The injection site indeed tends to develop ulcerationswhich they can get infectedand go against the formation of tissue necrotic medically defined as it’s expensive. For those who develop an addiction, very often not even these very painful purulent wounds represent a sufficient reason to give up the substance, and little by little you find yourself covered in excoriations and necrotic tissue (hence the definition of “dear zombie“), with the concrete risk that it will be necessary to resort toamputation of the involved limbsto avoid sepsis, and therefore death.
In the United States, where the problem is now increasingly widespread, the Dea (Drug Enforcement Administration) issued a public safety alert regarding the combination of Fentanyl e salvation. And the President Biden recently designated (first time in American history) the combination of these two substances as an emerging danger to the United States. In Europe, the diffusion of xylazine as a substance of abuse is certainly lower than in America (although it is impossible to say exactly by how much, given that it is not among the substances routinely monitored in our continent). But that could change rapidly in the next few years, as a major impact of the production ban is expected poppies and opium Afghans decided by the Taliban, who traditionally supplied the European market with heroin. The effects on heroin availability are expected next year. And if there is indeed a significant reduction in more or less pure heroin on the European market, it is plausible that important market segments will open up for the sale of synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, and therefore, consequently, also for xylazine.