A dangerous animal tranquilizer called xylazine is spreading into Canada’s illicit opioid supply.
Xylazine is a sedative and analgesic normally used in veterinary medicine to sedate large animals such as cattle or horses.
The presence of xylazine in opioids in the United States prompted a warning from the U.S. FDA in November 2022, alerting health-care professionals to “increasing reports of serious side effects.”
The drug is being dubbed as the “zombie drug” or “tranq dope” and was most recently found in southern Alberta.
Chief Evan Bray of the Regina Police Service said they haven’t found traces in the community yet, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
“I’m quite confident … we will hopefully get a bit of a heads-up if we start seeing that make our way into our province,” said Bray.
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He noted that the Regina Police Service works closely with drug investigators around the province and will be keeping an eye out for the drug.
“It’s part of the challenge we see in our community. We saw fentanyl making a presence in our community and within months we had various different depravities or analogs associated to fentanyl. Some were responsive to the Narcan, some were not.
“It’s a big cliche to say, but there is no quality control in the drug world.”
Xylazine does not respond to naloxone — a medication that can reverse the effects of opiates — and makes overdoses from opioids mixed with this sedative more challenging to treat.
“Overdoses are already a problem in our community,” said Bray. “One overdose is too many.”
There were 161 overdose incidences in Regina in February, including 14 overdose deaths.
Regina’s mayor Sandra Masters noted that the community should be worried.
‘We know we had a problem in 2015 with methamphetamines and then came fentanyl and we know that the overdose rate has spiked due to fentanyl and so with more dangerous drugs on the street we should all be deeply concerned.”
People taking drugs containing xylazine can develop severe skin ulcers and constricted blood vessels which can result in the necessary amputation of limbs.
– with files from Global News’ Teresa Wright
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