By David Yamaguchi,
The North American Post
If the words “Tranq” and Xylazine mean nothing to you, this is a heads-up that they probably will soon.
Tranq is street slang for tranquilizer. Xylazine is an uncontrolled, large-animal sedative, used by veterinarians for horses and cattle. Illegal opioid-drug dealers have started cutting fentanyl powder or needle-injected heroin with xylazine. Fentanyl has been an opioid drug of choice of late that the Seattle homeless commonly vaporize off of tinfoil in the Little Saigon neighborhood and elsewhere.
Fentanyl+xylazine or heroin+xylazine result in intense “highs.” Xylazine’s downsides are that after taking it, users can no longer walk, but stagger; they can black out. Over time, those injecting xylazine develop severe, non-healing limb wounds which can lead to amputation or death.
Tranq has already devastated drug addicts in Philadelphia. More recently, it has appeared in the streets of Vancouver BC, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The bottom line: it seems likely that the US illicit street-drug problem and the associated crime that supports it will get worse before they get better.
Be careful out there.
