April 7, 2023 - WASHINGTON - Representative Josh Harder has sent a letter to the Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), demanding resources for fighting the growing spread of Xylazine the “Zombie Drug” in street drugs like fentanyl.

 The drug originated as a tranquilizer for horses and other livestock in veterinary care but has infiltrated street drugs to extend their effects and exacerbated overdoses in the process. Also referred to as “tranq”, Xylazine is highly addictive and can deteriorate flesh at the injection site leading to amputation.

 “This Zombie Drug is terrifying. Xylazine was created to sedate 1000-pound horses, and now it’s being shot up on our streets,” said Representative Harder. “It doesn’t take much of this drug to put someone into a coma, and now that it’s mixed with fentanyl, we could have an even deadlier drug tearing through San Joaquin County. Our law enforcement and hospitals are up against a lot already. We need the DEA to treat this like the emergency it is and give law enforcement the resources they need to respond.”

The letter was sent on the same day Harder announced nearly $300,000 in new funding for drug addiction research at University of the Pacific in Stockton. Harder celebrated the grant funding and agreed more resources are needed for law enforcement and public health officials to protect the community from a deepening substance abuse crisis.

 Read the full letter below or online here.

 Dear Administrator Milgram.

I write today to express my concern regarding the rising prevalence of xylazine in our communities and urge you to increase resources to state and local governments to support their efforts to combat this emerging crisis.

The 2021 Central Valley California High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (CVC HIDTA) Threat Assessment found that fentanyl will soon surpass methamphetamine as the most dangerous drug in the San Joaquin Valley. In California, Fentanyl was responsible for over 80% of all opioid-related overdose deaths in 2021. This crisis continues to ravage our communities and impact Americans from all walks of life. The emergence of xylazine, which is used to cut fentanyl, threatens to take this crisis to a new level. As you stated in a recent public safety alert, xylazine is “making the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced even deadlier”. 

The DEA seized more than four hundred million lethal doses of fentanyl in 2022, with nearly twenty-five percent of doses containing xylazine. Xylazine use is known to cause gruesome soft tissue injuries that may lead to necrosis and amputation. This is particularly alarming since there is no antidote for xylazine. Time is of the essence if we want to prevent a new crisis that mirrors the current fentanyl crisis in the U.S.

I urge the DEA to increase resources to our state and local partners so they are able to fully combat xylazine and fentanyl distribution in our communities. The DEA must expand programs like Operation Engage, which will allow more communities to benefit from a comprehensive community-level approach to addressing this drug crisis. Additionally, the DEA needs to provide diversion control teams with additional resources so they can maximize their work with partners like CVC HIDTA. Additionally, I urge the DEA to work with partner agencies to provide additional information on how xylazine is distributed, how law enforcement can tackle this new threat, and a list of the latest best practices for xylazine exposure treatment.  

We must do everything we can to equip our communities with the information and resources to tackle this emerging crisis. I thank you for the work the DEA has done so far, and I look forward to hearing from you on the additional steps you plan on taking as we continue to fight this crisis. 

Sincerely,

Josh Harder

Member of Congress
Source: Congressman Josh Harder

Related: U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto, Chuck Grassley, and Maggie Hassan Introduce Legislation to Crack Down on Xylazine, Which Has Been Called a “Zombie Drug”