Moody visits Sarasota: Rise in Xylazine has made use of deadly opioids even more lethal

A startling rise in the use of an animal tranquilizer called Xylazine, also known as "tranq" or the "zombie drug," has made dangerous opioids even more deadly over the last year.

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody warned Florida residents about the prevalence of the drug on Wednesday during a visit to Sarasota, which is the county with the third most Xylazine-related deaths in the state, she said.

Florida outlawed Xylazine in 2016, but it is FDA-approved on the national level as a sedative for animal use. Xylazine is not an opioid but is frequently mixed with opioids such as fentanyl, which itself has seen a surge in recent years.

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"It is cheap, it is easily accessible, so drug dealers will often mix it with fentanyl or other substances and leave users in the dark about what they are actually taking," Moody said. "Even if you do not die, people who use these drugs are developing rotting skin lesions, their limbs are rotting away from the injection of this substance. Some have to have their limbs amputated. So in seeking a high, they are literally risking life and limb."

In Sarasota, Manatee, and DeSoto counties, nearly 250 people died from fentanyl poisoning in 2021, a 485% increase since 2016, Moody said.

"As deadly and as terrifying that elicit fentanyl is proving to be, its lethality is being enhanced by a drug that is being bought and sold in most U.S. states legally," she said.

Sarasota County Sheriff Kurt Hoffman explained the drug is often called the "zombie drug" because of the effect it has when mixed with fentanyl. He said the agency responded to over 100 fentanyl-related overdoses last year, and lab tests discovered Xylazine mixed into other substances over 150 times.

"Xylazine is an animal tranquilizer,'" he said. "The zombie part of that comes because it gives fentanyl quote on quote 'legs.' Traditionally, you would have symptoms with fentanyl that are accelerated, and they are able to get up on their legs and walk around. That's where the term zombie drug comes into play."

Moody, Hoffman, State Attorney Ed Brodsky, and other law enforcement representatives called for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to classify Xylazine as a controlled substance to address growing concern over its abuse.

"People need to know that this unique substance, Xylazine, is now in the drug supply here in Sarasota County, and we expect this will only continue to increase until there is some sort of nationwide approach," Moody said.

She also encouraged people suffering from substance addiction to seek help at treatmentatlas.org.

"You may have had an addiction in the past and put off getting help, but it has never been more important," Moody said. "The mixture of fentanyl and Xylazine in more traditional elicit substances has never been more prevalent. Resources are out there."

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Ashley Moody: Rise in Xylazine has made opioids even more lethal