MACON, Ga. — The United States Drug Enforcement Agency is warning people about another potentially dangerous drug, nicknamed the 'zombie drug.'
It gets the nickname from severe skin lesions people sometimes get when they use it. Its street name is 'Tranq,' but its official name is Xylazine. The drug is FDA-approved as an animal tranquilizer.
Marissa Cody with the North Central Health District says many of the people who get access to the drug don't have any ties to veterinary medicine.
"What's really scary about this is that it's not an opioid," she said.
Opioids are a class of drug that produce Morphine-like effects. They're generally used for pain relief and anesthesia. You may have heard of a dangerous one, Fentanyl. If treated in time, someone can survive an opioid overdose.
"We have Narcan or Naloxone which reverses opioid overdoses," Cody said.
Xylazine produces similar effects to opioids, but it's different. There's no treatment approved for human use.
"It's virtually rendering Narcan ineffective," Cody said.
Sometimes, people mix Xylazine and Fentanyl, but it wouldn't work there either. That's because Xylazine still suppresses the central nervous system.
"It's not detected in any of the routine toxicology screens either. So, we don't know how widespread this is," Cody said.
Still, she says Georgia saw a 1,100% increase in Tranq overdose deaths between 2020 and 2022.
"People are able to get it online through the internet. And it looks like you can get it at a really low price," Cody said.
This is why she says people often mix the two drugs: it's cheaper in the long run.
Cody says it's a widespread problem.
"Every single Xylazine-involved overdose death in Georgia, all suspected overdose deaths involved Fentanyl," Cody said.
She says because Xylazine doesn't show up in most toxicology reports, the number of overdoses could be much higher. Cody encourages people to be vigilant about anything they buy off the street, because it could be deadly.
Cody says some people do intend to use Xylazine, but many don't know what they're taking.