The flesh-rotting “zombie drug” xylazine has been wreaking havoc in the US. Now it’s in the UK. A toxicology report showed that a middle-aged man from Solihull, England, died from the effects of xylazine, heroin, fentanyl and cocaine.
Drug overdoses in the US have been increasing over the last 20 years, with over 100,000 overdose deaths reported in 2021, largely driven by opioids. It is one of the worst public health disasters to have ever affected the US and Canada.
To add to this already devastating trend, US heroin supplies are now commonly adulterated with the strong synthetic opioid fentanyl and the animal tranquillizer xylazine to reduce the cost of producing large batches of heroin. In some regions, there are reports that over 90% of heroin contains this combination.
