Warning about new “zombie” drug in Scotland

A new drug that is causing increasing numbers of overdoses and deaths is causing concern among support groups in Scotland.

Xylazine is a powerful animal tranquilizer known as “tranq dope” or “zombie” when laced with heroin and fentanyl by drug dealers.

The synthetic drug reduces breathing and heart rate to dangerously low levels and can cause large open skin wounds, which is why it is nicknamed the “flesh-eating zombie drug.”

Earlier this year, Public Health Scotland (PHS) issued a warning saying that people taking illegal drugs may not be aware of the presence of xylazine in their drugs.

In May, his Radar report said that xylazine had been detected in five deaths at the end of last year.

PHS warned that the likelihood of accidental ingestion of the drug was very high because it was diluted with other medicines.

Gareth Balmer, project manager at Fife-based WithYou, told BBC Scotland News he was seeing an increase in the adulteration of drugs, including heroin and street benzodiazepines.

“Now is not a good time to have a serious drug problem,” he said.

“I’ve been working in the drug field for a few decades now and drugs are more dangerous today than ever before.”

The warning comes a day before the expected publication of annual figures on drug deaths in Scotland.

Scotland’s drug death rate has remained stubbornly high for years and remains the highest in Western Europe.

Figures for 2022 showed drug deaths in Scotland had fallen to its lowest level in five years, but there are concerns that the latest figures could show a renewed increase.

New drugs such as tranquilizers and synthetic opioids called nitazines add to further concerns.

Nitazines, which are often mixed with heroin, are now also being adulterated with benzodiazepines.

Mr Balmer expressed concern that patterns of drug use that had emerged in the United States were emerging in the United Kingdom.

“What we have seen in America is horrific,” he said.

“Their heroin was replaced with fentanyl and then cut with xylazine, and in America they call it tranq dope.”

“It’s a combination of fentanyl and xylazine and that’s what we’re seeing here now and that’s what they call the zombie drug.”

The outreach service WithYou works to reduce harm by providing wound dressings, clean needles, testing for blood-borne viruses and naloxone – a medication that can reverse or reduce the effects of opioids.

Naloxone has made a big contribution to reducing fatal overdoses, but Mr Balmer said it does not work against xylazine.

One user told BBC Scotland he almost died in June after taking adulterated Valium tablets on the street.

John, who suffered a stroke after taking the pills and spent time in intensive care, said there was no way to know what was actually in the street drugs.

“People say, ‘Oh no, my tablets are real, I always know they’re real tablets.'”

“But you never know if they are real pills unless they are pharmaceutical – especially if they come from the street.”

John, in his early 40s, says his GP prescribed him benzodiazepines when he was 16 because of health problems.

He then became addicted to a mixture of various illegal drugs.

Through the WithYou service, he learned he had hepatitis C and was successfully treated. He also received support for his mental health.

He says he has started to stop taking all medications since his stroke.

In most cases, xylazine is mixed with powerful opioids such as heroin or fentanyl, but a study from King’s College London earlier this year found that it was also found in counterfeit prescription drug tablets, e-cigarettes and cocaine.

The study, published in the journal Addiction, warned of side effects such as respiratory impairment and skin ulcers – also known as “tissue necrosis” – which can lead to limb amputation.

The researchers stressed that drug use has become a major problem in the United States and that this “public health threat has now spread to the United Kingdom.”

When xylazine is injected directly into a person’s bloodstream, it can cause large open skin ulcers to form. These can begin to rot and lead to amputation.

Xylazine appeared on the illegal drug market in Puerto Rico in the early 2000s and has since been found in the United States, mainly in the East, and in Canada.