I'm a former tranq user – I know the exact moment sellers started sneaking the zombie drug into fentanyl, it's scary | The Sun
A SKIN-ROTTING drug commonly known as "Tranq" has catastrophically hit the streets of Philadelphia and The U.S. Sun has exclusively revealed when it emerged.
Public health officials are disturbed by the spread of Xylazine and the horrific wounds it inflicts on users.
Xylazine is an animal tranquilizer that is increasingly found in heroin and fentanyl, often replacing them altogether and becoming tranq.
It is approved by the FDA as an animal tranquilizer to be used by vets on large animals such as cattle but is not safe for humans.
The FDA has issued an import alert for drug ingredients and products connected to the drug.
Commissioner Robert Califf said last week: "The FDA remains concerned about the increasing prevalence of Xylazine mixed with illicit drugs, and this action is one part of broader efforts the agency is undertaking to address this issue."
Community Health Services Advisor, Kevin Dahkgren, confirmed to NewsNation Prime that the drug "is reaching the West Coast" after a handful of deaths in San Francisco.
Speaking to The U.S. Sun, former tranq user Tracey McCann explained how dealers "sneaked" the dangerous drug into their supplies.
Tracey ended up living on the streets of Kensington, Philadelphia, the ground zero for tranq addiction.
"I was going to Kensington all the time to get my drugs and then I'd say around the beginning of Covid is when [dealers] started sneaking the Xylazine into the Fentanyl," she said.
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She added: "They weren't saying, oh this is Tranq, this is xylazine.
"No one knew what we were doing, we just thought it was really good fentanyl and so, we would do it and there were a few spots that had the best stuff which we now know was Xylazine."
The new drug was so popular due to the price and the hit it gives users, street corners were crammed with people.
"There would be times I'd be there to go grab the drug and there would be like 50 to 100 people just waiting on the block for the drug dealers to show up," the 39-year-old said.
According to Philadelphia mayoral candidate David Oh, dealers hold "free sample days to attract business" on street corners, knowing the instant hook of Tranq.
Tracey noticed the increased use of Xylazine to cut drugs like heroin and fentanyl by the changes of color to the liquid.
She said: "When you shoot up fentanyl, it's clear just like water, but in the beginning of Covid, it went from looking like water when you hit it to like a light pink.
"Then over time it just started getting like a darker pink until the end when I my last day using it was purple.
"Some say it's food coloring, some say it's the drug they're cutting it with."
About three or four months after using the new drug, Tracey noticed small lesions appearing on her arms at the injection sites.
Oh painted a picture of the streets of Kensington like the wild west, when talking to The U.S. Sun about the drug crisis.
"Drug dealers are murdering each other because business is so good – there is good money to be made," he said
Oh spoke of the regular "shootouts" that happen on the streets between rivals which citizens are warned of but threatened if they go to the cops.
"Deadly drugs sell the best, it's a murderous competition," he said.
Oh is hoping to re-introduce law enforcement into the area, with Tracey agreeing that dealers need to be deterred.
Her experiences of living on the streets of Kensington reflected Oh's perceptions.
She explained how she once used on the streets with someone right next to a cop and "the cop did nothing about it."
"The government out there is letting it be lawless…they need to get the drug dealers."
She even revealed how some of the dealers must "be in with certain cops" because they ensure that when the "jump boys" come to the area, a drug addict has been recruited to deal in exchange for some free supplies and they then get arrested.
"When I was out there on the streets there were a lot of things that happened to me – I had someone shot next to me," she said.
Tracey continued: "I was on the side using and this person was also using next to me and I don't know if they had some type of disagreement with somebody, I'm not exactly sure what had happened but this chick and this guy walked up and then and all of a sudden I started hearing gunshots and it was for the girl that was next to me who got shot."
Tracey left Kensington a few weeks later and reflected on her previous life on the streets.
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"The things I had to do to get high you know, stealing, boosting from stores, sleeping on the streets, waking up, having ants crawling on me, flies, not being able to shower, use the bathroom….I knew if I stayed I would be dead."
Tracey who know lives in St. Louis, Missouri, just celebrated being six months clean from drugs.
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