US wants to act as zombie drug deaths rise

The White House announced on Tuesday that it must crack down on a steep rise in deaths from overdoses of Xylazine, also known as the “zombie drug”.

Xylazine is a particularly dangerous substance, originally an anesthetic for horses, regularly mixed with other drugs such as fentanyl or heroin.

A study conducted by the federal government, compiling data from 20 states, draws a harsh assessment of the situation.

The data points to a 276% increase in the number of drug overdose deaths between January 2019 and June 2022. The CDC, the US health agency, recorded 109,000 overdose deaths last year.

When not fatal, this drug digs holes in users’ bodies. Dr Rahul Gupta, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, expressed his deep concern:

“I’ve never seen injuries this severe on this scale… What I want everyone to understand is that while we thought fentanyl was dangerous, fentanyl combined with xylazine is still more deadly”.

Faced with this crisis, the Biden administration is planning a response at the federal level. For now, she does not believe she understands the full extent of the problem, due to the lack of specific tests. The objective is therefore to develop rapid tests to be deployed in hospitals, for victims of overdoses.