PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced Tuesday his administration plans to schedule xylazine, the powerful veterinary sedative, as a schedule III drug.
Xylazine, also known as tranq, is legal for veterinary use to sedate large animals, such as horses. But in recent years the drug has spread into fentanyl supplies across the country, including Philadelphia.
"This drug is a serious threat," Shapiro said in the city's Kensington neighborhood, which has been ravaged by the opioid epidemic. "Even more so because a lot of times when people take it, they don't even realize it's mixed in with the fentanyl that they're purchasing."
