PONTIAC, Mich. (WXYZ) — There is a public health warning about a dangerous animal tranquilizer that’s getting mixed into drugs. One local sheriff says he can no longer wait for the federal government to make the drug illegal, so legislation is being introduced in Michigan to help get xylazine off the streets.
“It’s a terrible drug,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said.
The sudden influx of the dangerous animal tranquilizer has the sheriff and lawmakers worried because the drug xylazine is currently legal.
“Right now, we don’t have any tools. They can be shipping it (via) UPS to your house,” Bouchard said.
Bouchard says his crime lab just started testing for xylazine in March and they’ve seen a huge increase in the drug known on the street as “tranq.”
“It’s already present in 80 to 85 percent of what we’re testing. That’s a stunning change, obviously, in a very short period of time,” Bouchard said.
Xylaxine is used by veterinarians as a tranquilizer and muscle relaxer for large animals. But Bouchard says drug dealers are using it as a cutting agent and mixing it with fentanyl and heroine.
“It has a sedation effect on a human. It lowers their breathing, lowers their heart rate, and there’s very severe withdrawal symptoms and ultimately death,” Bouchard said.
Xylazine makes life-saving measures like Narcan less effective, or they don’t work at all.
“We need to take immediate action. Unfortunately, my family lost a very dear friend to a fentanyl overdose — this is worse,” state Rep. Kelly Breen, D-Novi, said. “What we are seeing here with tranq is taking the worse opioid epidemic ever and compounding it.”
Breen is the chair of the House Judiciary committee. She says new laws are needed to protect people from xyalzine’s side effects that include skin lesions, organ damage and death.
Right now, Breen is drafting bills to make xylzine a Schedule II narcotic.
“It gives us the ability to stop packages that are coming from China, to have another charge against the dealers of this death,” Bouchard said.
Breen says she hopes to have legislation introduced as early as next week. The drug would still be legal for veterinarians to use.