Law enforcement raising awareness over new ‘zombie drug’ found in Charleston

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – It is known as the “zombie drug” and Charleston Police officials say they have found it here in the city. Now, they’re trying to educate the public before it causes harm or death in the Tri-County area.

Fentanyl and the powerful animal sedative xylazine are now being mixed to produce a fatal drug combination that has law enforcement and lawmakers sounding the alarm.

“It’s a deadly,” (D) Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said, “skin-rotting zombie drug.”

The National Institute on Drug Abuse says xylazine, known as “tranq,” is often added to illicit opioids like fentanyl and heroin to lengthen the drugs’ euphoric effects.

“It induces this sedative effect and lowers the blood pressure,” Colin Miller, who works in the University of North Carolina Street Drug Analysis Lab, said, “and in large doses, it’s used on horses, elephants to kind of help put them under.”

These toxic drug combinations can cause respiratory depression, seizures and rot users’ skin down to the bone, which can lead to amputation.

“Very scary-looking wounds,” Miller said, “and we’ve seen a number of times where these wounds have been sort of treated like other wounds and that results in pretty much non-effective treatment.”

Another treatment that has proven to be non-effective against tranq-laced opioids is NARCAN.

“If we’re dealing with something where the NARCAN doesn’t work,” St. Lawrence County Sheriff Brooks Bigwarfe said, “we could see an uptick in overdoses and possibly more deaths.”

Experts say because there is currently no treatment to reverse the drug’s effects, the outcome for those who use it could be deadly.

“It has made a lot of people much more vulnerable,” Miller said. “If they’re using drugs and they don’t know what’s in the drugs and what’s in the drugs is these strong tranquilizers and sedatives.”

Eight overdose deaths were attributed to the “zombie drug” in Clarendon County, South Carolina earlier this year, however, Charleston Police Department (CPD) officials say as of now, there have been no deaths reported in the city caused by the drug combo.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is calling this the deadliest drug America has ever faced, and they say it has already been found in 48 states.