HARRISBURG, Pa. — States are increasingly looking to restrict access to a powerful animal tranquilizer showing up in supplies of illicit drugs and contributing to a growing number of human overdose deaths.
Governor Josh Shapiro announced Tuesday that his administration will add xylazine to the state's list of controlled substances, tightening regulations on the drug and allowing authorities to charge people who violate those rules.
“Taking this step will make it harder to use these dangerous drugs illegally and illicitly," said Governor Shapiro.
Listing xylazine as a “schedule III” drug under Pennsylvania’s controlled substance law is expected to take effect this Saturday.
“By scheduling it, we are giving greater tools to law enforcement and others to properly regulate, control and contain these drugs, make arrests and hopefully prosecutions,” Shapiro said Tuesday at a news conference in Philadelphia.
The drug is also known as "Tranq" and can cause visible skin ulcers on users, leading to infection and potential amputation.
“On top of the sedative nature and dropping of blood pressure, heart rate, and respiratory rate, now you have the long-term issue of your skin basically rotting away," said Don Deardorff of Capital EMS in West York.
Deardorff said his company has yet to see any Tranq overdoses in York, however, he believes it’s a matter of time before cases appear in Central Pa., which will add to the ongoing opioid crisis.
“This is going to compound that issue going on with them," said Deardorff. "You’re never prepared, and you hope it doesn’t arrive.”
He says his company always carries Naloxone to help reverse the effect of overdoses and is trained in lifesaving measures for victims. Deardorff hopes Gov. Shapiro’s announcement will help slow the spread of Tranq in Pennsylvania.
“Hopefully with the Governor’s speech and implementing the controlling of it more, hopefully, [the drug] isn’t coming this way," he told FOX43 News.
Last month, Ohio's Republican governor signed an executive order restricting xylazine through the state's Board of Pharmacy, and West Virginia's Republican governor signed legislation to make it a controlled substance.
The designations in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia allow veterinarians to continue using the drug to sedate animals, but it puts veterinarians under tighter regulations on how it must be handled, tracked and stored.
Xylazine is already a schedule I controlled substance in Florida, meaning it is a crime to possess it or sell it in the state. The state's attorney general has urged the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to immediately add xylazine to the controlled substances list.
Last week, the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy named xylazine as an “emerging threat” when it’s mixed with the powerful opioid fentanyl.
Xylazine, first approved for veterinary use in 1971, is used to sedate cows, horses, sheep and other animals. The drug is increasingly being added to fentanyl and heroin, officials say.
“Dealers have started to do this because cutting fentanyl and Xylazine extends the high," said Shapiro. "But it makes these already dangerous drugs more deadly and more harmful.”
Officials are trying to understand how much of it is diverted from veterinary uses and how much is manufactured illicitly. It is not comprehensively tracked nationally, researchers say.
Still, xylazine was detected in about 800 drug deaths in the U.S. in 2020 and more than 3,000 in 2021, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
In Pennsylvania, xylazine contributed to 90 overdose deaths in 2017, and 575 overdose deaths in 2021 Shapiro’s office said.