Things are beyond evil when a recovering heroin addict says, Its crazy to think.
..the option is to have good old-fashioned heroin back, for life would be better. That s... sounds so crazy and foreign to say or think..
Frank Rodriguez is a recovering addict who had much to say to Fox News about the latest horrific drug coming to the U.S.
In the Kensington neighborhood in Philadelphia, xylazine has hit the ground running. Xylazine is a veterinary tranquilizer known as tranq dope or the zombie drug. Rodriguez says finding heroin that isnt cut with xylazine or Fentanyl is next to impossible. Xylazine is taking a toll on the Kensington area and its residents.
A tranq dope cocktail has one benefit for users; it sells for half the price of a traditional dose. The downside to xylazine, along with being addictive, is that it causes the person to slip into a state of near unconsciousness, leaving the user in an unsafe situation where they may quickly be taken advantage of and harmed. Effects of the zombie drug also include painful sores, wounds, and necrosis leaving open gaps where the skin has rotted.
Rodriguez told Fox News, You literally see people, you know, with sores, with their skin falling off their body. You could smell rotting flesh when you get in a group of a few individuals in the summertime.
The visual effects are profound and disturbing. A wound may appear carved out of the flesh, a chemical burn appearance, swollen hands and feet, hardened tissue, and oozing and festering sores.
The New York Times reported another Kensington resident, Brooke Peder, known as Hood Grandma, saying, The tranq dope literally eats your flesh. Its self-destruction at its finest. Due to a trans-induced infection, the 38-year-old had her leg amputated.
Another addict told The Times that she had seen wounds of tranq users covered in fleas and maggots.
Rodriguez said, You give them Narcan, and it doesnt matter because youre treating the wrong thing. Its a completely different ball game now.
Fox News reports the flood of the drug started in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Joseph DOrazio of Temple University Hospital and an expert in addiction, told the Times, Most people tell me, I wish I could find dope that didnt have xylazine.
In a June study, 36 states and D.C. have been identified as having xylazine available. In 2021, dope samples in Philadelphia had 90 percent xylazine.
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