While the ‘tranq drug xylazine has overrun US cities – an even more deadly one is ready to take its place.

t comes as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) moves to restrict imports of the animal tranquilizer it says has increasingly been found in illicit drugs like fentanyl and heroin. Tranq is the common term for xylazine, an animal tranquilizer that is becoming known as a zombie drug for the skin-rotting effects it has on people who take it. Xylazine is approved by the FDA as an animal tranquilizer used by vets but is not safe for humans. People who use the drug have found that raw wounds will erupt at injection sites, which if not treated can lead to amputation. Xylazine killed a record of nearly 107,000 people in the US in 2021.

The new drug is nitazene, which is thought to be over 30 times stronger than fentanyl.