PHILADELPHIA — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced Tuesday his administration plans to schedule xylazine, the powerful veterinary sedative, as a schedule III drug.
Xylazine, also known as tranq, is legal for veterinary use to sedate large animals, such as horses. But in recent years the drug has spread into fentanyl supplies across the country, including Philadelphia.
"This drug is a serious threat," Shapiro said in the city's Kensington neighborhood, which has been ravaged by the opioid epidemic. "Even more so because a lot of times when people take it, they don't even realize it's mixed in with the fentanyl that they're purchasing."
Making it a schedule III drug would allow the state to require tighter record keeping, require the drug to be stored in locked facilities, and give law enforcement the ability to charge people in illegal possession of the drug. What's more, manufacturers must add additional checks to ensure the person who ordered the drug is the one receiving it.
Shapiro said that as governor, he's able to reclassify substances that pose an imminent hazard to public safety through his secretary of health.
The scheduling of the drug is expected to begin in May.
According to state data, xylazine contributed to 90 overdose deaths in 2017. By 2021, the drug contributed to 575 overdose deaths across 30 counties. That year, Philadelphia reported 90% of street opioid samples contained xylazine.
In Philadelphia, epidemiologists believe xylazine was initially added to fentanyl to give the opioid a longer-lasting high, similar to that of heroin. Except xylazine is not an opioid and its effects are more aggressive. Users report blacking out, forgetting things and developing wounds in places throughout the body they never injected.
Overdoses where xylazine is present are harder to reverse because the drug won't respond to naloxone. Complicating treatment, users say xylazine withdrawal can overcome the body quickly and aggressively. The drug doesn't respond to traditional withdrawal medications.
In late February, the Food and Drug Administration announced restrictions on the import of the drug, making shipments of xylazine and products that contain it subject to "heightened FDA scrutiny."
Cheryl Bettigole, Philadelphia's health commissioner, has spoken out in support of the restrictions and along with Mayor Jim Kenney has called for the drug to be classified as a controlled substance at the federal level.
Still, some people working in harm reduction have raised concerns about what restrictions on xylazine could mean for people who are already dependent on the drug and whether a crackdown could give rise to newer, even more dangerous drugs.
