A BBC report published October 18 documents street-drug mixtures involving fentanyl and synthetic animal tranquillisers, including xylazine and medetomidine, in communities in Ohio and Chicago.
The report says fentanyl is often cut with synthetic tranquillisers that can prolong its effects. It identifies xylazine and medetomidine as sedatives that slow breathing, and reports that naloxone reverses opioid overdoses but does not work against the tranquillisers themselves. The BBC also reports that xylazine can cause necrotic skin ulcers that are difficult to treat.
In Columbus, the BBC followed the Hope Dealer Community, a recovery group whose director said it works with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on a drug-sampling programme. Participants bring needles or pipes for swabbing, with samples sent to a CDC laboratory in North Carolina, according to the report. The group’s director said one drug kit brought in by a participant tested positive for medetomidine.
The reporting also describes accounts from Columbus and Chicago in which people believed they were using crack cocaine but encountered fentanyl in the drug supply. A recovery-group director told the BBC that the supply had shifted toward mixtures containing fentanyl, methamphetamine and other adulterants.
A related BBC video report from Chicago’s South Side says communities are confronting a new wave of synthetic drugs, including tranq. It notes that U.S. overdose deaths fell from a 2022 peak of around 110,000 to roughly 70,000 last year, while authorities remain concerned about more powerful synthetic drugs.
The BBC reports provide accounts of conditions in the communities it visited, rather than a prevalence estimate for particular drug mixtures across Chicago or the United States.