Authorities say the mixing of xylazine with fentanyl has created a deadly cocktail.
Officials in Los Angeles are trying to contain the spread of xylazine, a flesh-eating "zombie drug" that can have gruesome effects on addicts. Also known as "tranq", the drug is used as a tranquilise on cows and horses. But it is flooding the illicit US drug market, with dealers often mixing it with other illegal drugs like fentanyl and heroin. Authorities in Los Angeles are racing to track the rapid rise in its use and can lead to skin and muscle rotting away.
"It's really gruesomely disfiguring people," Drug Enforcement Administration special agent Bill Bodner told local news station KTLA.
"It's much more likely to stop someone from breathing and the things that come along with xylazine, it's a vasoconstrictor. So when you're injecting it, it's actually reducing the blood circulation," the official said.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has launched a pilot programme to better document the drug's presence.
The programme in mid-April with crime lab analysts making note of any preliminary signs of xylazine in seized drugs, according to LA Times. It is expected to run for a month before officials decide on the next steps.
"In the Greater Los Angeles area, we are seeing xylazine as an additive within fake fentanyl pills," Nicole Nishida, spokesperson for the Los Angeles Field Division of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, told the outlet.
"While the numbers are relatively low in our community compared to elsewhere in the United States, the presence of xylazine is now becoming more frequent and the trend is concerning," the official added.
Federal data show that about 23 per cent of fentanyl powder and 7 per cent fentanyl pills seized last year contained xylazine.
As per a US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) release, the mixing of xylazine with fentanyl is making the deadliest drug threat the country has ever faced even deadlier.
It further said that the mixture place users at a higher risk of suffering a fatal drug poisoning.
Xylazine is known to have severe effects on people who develop sores, or can even lost a limb in some cases.
"We had a woman come in and her sister had passed away from a fentanyl overdose," Cary Quashen, an addiction experts, told The Hill. "But not only was it a fentanyl overdose (but) her skin was starting to rot, the muscles on her leg and her arm. So that's a sure sign of xylazine."
Both the DEA and the LA County Health Department have issued urgent warnings about xylazine. Some say the county's pilot program is a small step in the right direction to fight a massive drug war consisting of a staggering increase in deaths.