Fentanyl – the deadliest drug in the country – is getting even more dangerous. Across the United States, the opioid is increasingly being mixed with xylazine, a powerful tranquilizer that’s approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in animals such as horses. But on the streets it’s known as “tranq” or “tranq dope”, and it’s been linked to horrific side effects and a growing number of deadly overdoses across the country.
The substance was first found mixed with heroin in Puerto Rico as early as two decades ago. Today the national epicenter of the crisis is Philadelphia, where xylazine appeared in the drug supply as early as 2006, and was found in over 90% of the city’s lab-tested dope samples in 2021.
