Xylazine, a veterinary tranquilizer with severe side effects, has infiltrated the UK’s illegal drug market, often mixed with opioids like heroin or fentanyl, and even detected with stimulants like cocaine. This emergence poses significant risks beyond traditional opioid users, evidenced by a related death and ongoing research highlighting its expanding threat within the UK drug scene. Xylazine, a potent animal tranquilizer, has entered the UK drug scene, causing significant health risks and a recorded death.
Experts call for preventive measures and harm-reduction strategies to address this emerging threat. Xylazine, a powerful animal tranquiliser linked to horrific side effects, is now widespread in the UK illicit drug market. Xylazine is often combined with potent opioids like heroin or fentanyl , a frequent pairing in the United States.
Additionally, it has been found without opioids, mixed with stimulants such as cocaine, and in products falsely marketed as codeine and diazepam (Valium) tablets, as well as in THC vapes. Researchers warn the wider population of people who use drugs beyond heroin users will be exposed to xylazine’s harms. The findings, published in Addiction , come after the team from the National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths at King’s College London reported on the death of a 43-year-old man from Solihull, West Midlands, in May 2022.
This is the first death outside North America and the first in the UK to be linked to xylazine use. Xylazine is .