Shocking images have emerged of injuries sustained by a former xylazine user after his skin rotted away.
A harm reduction page on TikTok shared the footage of the man having his wounds cleaned after using the drug.
The stranger, who resides in Nashville, Tennessee, has a large injury to his upper left arm after using xylazine, which is said to rot users’ skin.
The “zombie drug”, a US-approved veterinary tranquilizer for animals, is now flooding the US illicit drug market, with dealers frequently cutting fentanyl with it.
Video captured by the harm reduction page shows the man having a large part of his arm cleaned
The page that shared the video is run by a woman known only as Miriam who helps with the nonprofit Tennessee Harm Reduction.
In the video, Miriam explains in a voiceover that she relies on donations to work for drug addicts who cannot go to hospital for reasons such as lack of health insurance.
As she speaks, she can be seen cleaning and dressing a large wound on the man’s upper left arm which appears to be dark red in color.
She explains that some hospitals abuse drug addicts and one of the men she helps has heard from doctors about her bad smell.
Miriam says, “For people who are addicted to opioids, the withdrawal usually sets in while they’re sitting in the waiting room.
“Users are often sent away with a prescription they cannot afford.
“Ultimately, they had a deeply unpleasant experience.”
Speaking of the wounds of the man in the video, Miriam explains: “The wounds of this man need to be dressed, I will do the same tomorrow evening.
“Fingers crossed that guy keeps his arm.”
Opioid Awareness The TikTok Operation Opiate page also shared a warning about the new drug that is frequently cut with heroin and fentanyl.
In her post, a recovering drug addict named Jessica, who uses her platform to warn about the dangers of opioids, including fentanyl, says, “Lately I’ve been hearing a lot about the drug Xylazine.
“What you have to worry about is a drug called Xylazine, it basically rots your skin.
“You should be aware, apparently the FDA is going to crack down on this.”
The woman, known only as Jessica, shares her experience of drug use as a former user and has released a public service announcement about xylazine
Jessica, who can be seen with a large scar across her chest in the video, says her drug use caused infective endocarditis and she underwent surgery for her third heart valve replacement.
Infective endocarditis (IE) occurs when bacteria that enter the bloodstream settle in the lining of the heart, a heart valve, or a blood vessel.
According to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), xylazine is readily available for purchase on the Internet in both liquid and powder form.
The agency says the sites often show no association with the veterinary profession or any requirement to prove a legitimate need.
A kilogram of xylazine powder can be purchased online from Chinese suppliers with list prices ranging from $6 to $20 per kilogram, according to the DEA.
The drug has been rampant in Los Angeles lately, with news crews capturing people bent over and on the ground, tense on the drug.
The problem, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s officials, is that the drug is technically a legal substance.
Both the DEA and the county health department have issued urgent warnings against the use of the drug.
In a public safety alert, DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said, “Xylazine poses the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, fentanyl even deadlier.
“The DEA has seized mixtures of xylazine and fentanyl in 48 out of 50 states.
“The DEA Laboratory System reports that in 2022, approximately 23% of fentanyl powder and 7% of fentanyl pills seized by the DEA contained xylazine.”
The drug is now widely available in most parts of the country and even online for as low as $6, according to the DEA
Xylazine is now flooding the US illicit drug market, with drug dealers cutting everything from cocaine to heroin with the powerful sedative
News crews in Los Angeles captured footage of people hunched over the ground, hanging on drugs
The DEA issued urgent warnings against the use of the drug and warned that it was worsening the fentanyl crisis
The DEA says xylazine takes minutes to kick in with effects lasting up to four hours in animals. It is not known how long these would last in humans.
In many cases, this leaves users “stunned” on street corners and bus stops for hours.
When these people regain consciousness, they find that the heroin high has subsided and begin looking for their next dose.
The drug also causes open sores to appear on the body, often far from the injection site.
Philadelphia is currently at the epicenter of America’s xylazine crisis with reports from a community charity that have found patients with ‘gaping wounds’ and ‘unable to walk’.
Sarah Laurel, founder of the Savage Sisters outreach organization, said The Philadelphia Investigator: ‘I have never seen human beings staying in such conditions.
“They have open, gaping wounds, they can’t walk.”
In 2019, about a third of all fatal opioid overdoses in the city were drug-related.
Experts say patients die after taking xylazine because it can slow breathing as well as heart rate and lower blood pressure, which worsens the effects of other drugs.
A record nearly 107,000 Americans die from drug overdoses each year, but estimates on the number of deaths from xylazine are unavailable because this data is not routinely collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). .
