ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - The drug known as tranq on the street is now being mixed with other drugs. Law enforcement said the deadly drug xylazine is being mixed with everything from marijuana to fentanyl.
Xylazine is a depressant, which can slow your breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure to dangerous levels.
The Georgia Department of Public Health found that between 2020 and 2022, xylazine-related deaths increased by more than 1,100 percent. They report 183 Georgians died last year of an overdose where levels of xylazine were present.
A Conyers man accused of selling drugs laced with xylazine is now serving a federal sentence.
Quantavius Garcia with the Conyers Police Department remembers responding to the call. He said police found one man dead, and another severely injured after they claim to have taken a substance that 36-year-old Masi Fears sold them at a gas station. He said the victim thought he was purchasing crack cocaine from Fears, but evidence collected shows that xylazine was also present.
“Drug dealers are making a cheaper way out of it. They don’t care about the repercussions they can have for the seller,” said Garcia.
Gwinnett County Medical Examiner Carol Terry said she is seeing a spike in teenage deaths as well as people in their late 40s and 50s who turned to street drugs for pain relief.
“What I’ve seen, it’s often one-and-done. It’s like Russian Roulette, people think they’re getting one thing and they’re getting something else,” said Terry.
Test strips for xylazine just hit the market. Pharmacist Ira Katz at Little Five Points Pharmacy said they could be life-saving. He sells them for less than $4.
“We encourage people if they’re going to use, to find the test strips, we have them,” said Katz.
The Georgia Department of Public Health says it’s not clear at this point if xylazine is being diverted from veterinary medication, or if it’s being produced illicitly.
Copyright 2023 WANF. All rights reserved.
