Last year, viral videos of people unable to stand and acting weird on the streets of the United States prompted a conspiracy theory that they are affected by some “zombie virus”. Turns out, it was drugs, as many had predicted.
Xylazine, also known as “tranq,” “tranq dope” and “zombie drug”, is the new substance in town that has deadly effects. The drug has sedative-like symptoms – extreme sleepiness, respiratory depression characterize the use of the substance leading to the videos of people unable to stand.
But what is even more alarming that the drug actually does have more “zombie” like effects.
The drug can cause raw wounds on the user’s skin that can spread rapidly with repeated exposure. It starts with ulcers, hardens to dead skin called eschar, and if left untreated can result in amputation.
The non-opioid drug was first used to cut heroin. Then its presence made its way to Fentanyl- a deadly drug fatal in even very small doses.
The major issue of the "zombie drug" is that if you overdose, chances of revival are slim. People don’t respond to naloxone, or Narcan, the most common overdose reversal treatment, making Xylazine deadly.
Xylazine first appeared in Philadelphia and soon after moved to San Francisco and Los Angeles. Another major problem is there a risk in overdose cases if the zombie drug made its way into other substances.
Users of the illicit substance are not happy. People who have used the “zombie drug” said that it has killed “any kind of joy” that came with getting high, New York Post reported.
Read: Bizarre videos of zombie-like people on US streets stirs conspiracy theories
“I’d wake up in the morning crying because my arms were dying,” Tracey McCann, who developed wounds near her opioid injection sites, told the New York Times.
“Tranq is basically zombifying people’s bodies,” another user told Sky News. “Until nine months ago, I never had wounds. Now, there are holes in my legs and feet.”
Until this new menace is curbed, sightings of zombie-like people on the streets in USA may just be a common sighting.
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