How an alarming rise in deaths linked to ‘zombie drug’ Tranq made Biden’s White House act
New figures show a shocking rise in deaths on US streets linked to a drug which rots the skin of those who use it.
Xylazine, often referred to as Tranq or the zombie drug, has spread across America at such alarming speed that the White House has now released a new six-point action plan to tackle the crisis.
The drug, an animal tranquillizer, is increasingly mixed or “cut” by drug dealers into supplies of fentanyl which itself is already killing over 100,000 Americans every year.
According to the most recent data from 20 US states and the District of Columbia, the monthly percentage of fentanyl-associated deaths where xylazine was detected has increased from 2.9% to 10.9% – a jump of 276%.
Revealing the new figures and announcing the action plan, Dr Raul Gupta, the White House director of national drug control policy, said: “This administration recognises the grave threat that fentanyl combined with xylazine presents to our nation.”
Tranq is devastating communities in the US
The latest numbers are stark, shocking and suggest that the skin-rotting animal tranquiliser is now firmly established in America’s drug market.
In the 12 months ending in January, 109,000 Americans died from a drug overdose. Nearly seven in ten of those deaths were attributed to synthetic opioids like fentanyl and a growing number were linked to xylazine.
The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has seized xylazine-fentanyl mixtures in 48 of the 50 US states. And according to the DEA laboratories, in 2022, 23% of fentanyl powder and 7% of fentanyl tablets contained xylazine.
Spelling out the scale of the crisis, Dr Gupta said: “As a physician, I’ve never seen one this bad, at this scale… I visited the wound care clinic in Kensington neighbourhood of Philadelphia, one of the hardest hit communities in the nation.”
He added: “So what I want everyone to understand is this: if we thought fentanyl was dangerous, fentanyl combined with xylazine is even deadlier.”
Read more:
How drug leaves million-dollar streets strewn with bodies
‘Tranq’ designated ‘threat to the nation’
What is fentanyl?
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
What is ‘Tranq’? The new drug emerging in America
The streets of Philadelphia
In March, Sky News revealed the scale of the xylazine crisis in the northeastern city of Philadelphia, where the drug cocktail first emerged, with a report that exposed the true cost of America’s evolving drug challenge.
On block after block in the Kensington district we saw people suffering from addiction who were increasingly finding their opioid supply was being cut by dealers with xylazine.
We saw the open wounds, the rotting skin and the volunteer outreach workers overwhelmed by the scale of the challenge.
Speaking to Sky News four months since we visited, one of the volunteers we met said the situation is now much worse.
“The hospitals can’t keep the patients comfortable – because of their addiction – to keep them long enough to get the wounds under control,” Ronnie Kaiser told me.
When the wounds caused by the xylazine get to a certain stage, the user may either admit themselves to the hospital or be taken to hospital. But their urge for another ‘hit’ will often be greater than the recognition that the wounds need to be treated. It is a cruel and vicious cycle of addiction.
“There’s always new people and sadly some we’ve seen for years and, of course, there’s some who passed.” Ronnie said.
The White House six-point plan
According to Neera Tanden, the domestic policy adviser at the White House, the new six-point plan seeks to: “Aggressively expand access to prevention, harm reduction, treatment and recovery support for those with substance use disorders. And [take] bold actions to disrupt the supply of illicit drugs, especially fentanyl that is harming communities or all across the country.”
The plan, released on Tuesday, focuses on six pillars of action: testing, data collection, evidence-based prevention, harm reduction/treatment, supply reduction, scheduling (categorising the drug) and research.
The White House’s drug policy director, Dr Gupta said: “We’re calling on Congress to fully fund President Biden’s historic $46.1bn (£35.7bn) budget request for national drug control programs, including key funding to address illicit fentanyl and emerging threats like xylazine.”
Ronnie, who runs the Philadelphia-based charity Angels in Motion, speaking to Sky News earlier in 2023
The reaction on the streets
Ronnie, who runs the Philadelphia-based charity Angels in Motion, welcomed the fact that the federal government was finally recognising the scale of the crisis.
“Perhaps awareness is there now. It’s good that solutions are being looked at,” she said.
But she questioned the practicalities of the proposals: “Test strips? Why? Do they think the dealer will take the bag [of drugs] back if it comes up positive?!”
“We need more help with prevention, harm reduction, rehab and recovery houses – these should be the absolute solution now!” she said.
“Those of us on the ground know that these are the things needed. Unfortunately, I think funding goes to certain people, not so much to the boots on the ground.”
She pointed to the perennial American problem of medical insurance and the ‘for profit’ medical facilities. Even those living on the streets and suffering from addiction are required to navigate the country’s complex health system if they are to stand a real chance of recovery.
“We need federal rehabs, federal recovery houses, the ability for longer rehab stays and definitely all insurances to be accepted at all rehabs,” she said.
“That’s what we need so that all ‘for profit’ places go away. There are recovery houses that are so bad – throwing people out because they can’t find a job to pay fast enough.”
Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts
Too late for America
In February, Philadelphia’s substance use prevention and harm reduction chief, Dr Andrew Best, warned that cities across America should brace for xylazine and called on the federal government to do more.
“Right now there’s no state or federal funding available,” he told Sky News. “I don’t want this to spread to other cities.”
The new data shows it’s too late, and in May the first UK death linked to xylaxine was announced.
The Biden administration has also announced plans to disrupt the supply of both fentanyl and xylazine into the country. The precursor products come from China and are mostly converted to tablet or powder form by cartels in Mexico as Sky News exposed earlier this year.
The fear now, given the ever-growing supply of xylazine-adulterated fentanyl, is that it will infiltrate other sectors of society.
In May, Sky News saw how small-town communities were struggling with accidental fentanyl overdoses by children in schools
American Senator Ted Cruz has broken ranks with fellow US conservatives and
hit out at talk show host Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension, saying it was “mafioso” behaviour.
Disney-owned ABC has been widely criticised after it pulled the long-standing host of Jimmy Kimmel Live following comments in his show about the alleged gunman charged with right-wing activist Charlie Kirk’s murder.
Kimmel implied the suspect was a Maga Republican, despite the man’s mother telling police he had “started to lean more to the left”.
As a result, Federal Communications Commission chair Brendan Carr threatened Disney and local broadcasters with investigations and regulatory action if they aired Kimmel’s show – which led to dozens of local TV stations affiliated with ABC pulling it.
US President Donald Trump, who appointed Carr, lauded the decision.
But Mr Cruz criticised the threats as “dangerous as hell”.
“I got to say that’s right out of ‘Goodfellas’,” he said, evoking the Martin Scorsese gangster movie. “That’s right out of
a mafioso coming into a bar going, ‘Nice bar you have here.
“It would be a shame if something happened to it’.”
Senator Ted Cruz. Pic: AP
Explainer: What did Jimmy Kimmel say about Charlie Kirk?
The senator, a former constitutional lawyer, then adopted a broad mafioso accent to quote Mr Carr’s comments about broadcasters this week: “We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way.”
Mr Trump fired back, telling reporters in the Oval Office on Friday that he disagreed with Mr Cruz – one of the most
powerful Republicans in Congress – and calling Mr Carr “an incredible American patriot with courage.”
Demonstrations against his suspension have sprung up. Pic: AP
The Texas senator’s remarks are a rare example of a prominent member of the president’s own party publicly
criticising the actions of the administration, highlighting deepening concerns over free-speech rights and Mr Trump’s threatened crackdowns.
Prominent Democrats and civil rights groups condemned the Trump administration’s pressure to punish Kimmel and others who speak negatively of the president.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
US talk show titans speak out
Kimmel’s fellow late-night hosts have rallied around him, as did former US president Barack Obama, who wrote on X: “After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.
Barack Obama on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2016. Pic: Susan Walsh/AP
“This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent, and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating it.”
Conservative activists had been angered by Kimmel’s comments on his show that they were using the assassination to score “political points”.
Right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk was shot dead on 10 September as he took part in a public debate at a college campus in Utah .
Tyler Robinson, 22, was charged with aggravated murder, weapon, and obstruction of justice offences.
US talk show host Stephen Colbert has condemned the cancellation of fellow late-night star Jimmy Kimmel as a “blatant assault on freedom of speech”, as America’s top late night presenters came out fighting.
He used the opening of Thursday night’s edition of his Late Show to address the pulling of Jimmy Kimmel Live over comments made about the assassination of the right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk.
Kimmel used his show earlier this week to accuse the Trump administration and its allies of “working very hard to capitalise on the murder of Charlie Kirk”, with the president among those to pin it on left-wing extremism.
The move by Disney-owned ABC has been widely criticised, with the network accused of kowtowing to President Donald Trump, who celebrated the decision.
Also airing on Thursday night, Jon Stewart, host of Comedy Central’s Daily Show, appeared in a garish gold set, in parody of Mr Trump’s redesign of the White House, to tell viewers the episode would be “another fun, hilarious, administration-compliant show”.
Stewart, playing the role of an over-the-top, politically obsequious TV host under authoritarian rule, lavished praise on the president and satirised his criticism of US cities and his deployment of the National Guard to fight crime.
“Coming to you tonight from the real […] crime-ridden cesspool that is New York City. It is a tremendous disaster like no-one’s ever seen before. Someone’s National Guard should invade this place, am I right?” he said.
He then introduced his guest – Maria Ressa, a journalist and author of the book How To Stand Up To A Dictator.
Jon Stewart. Pic: Associated Press
Over at The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon told his audience he was “not sure what was going on” but that Kimmel is “a decent funny and loving guy and I hope he comes back”.
Fallon then promised viewers that in spite of people being “worried that we won’t keep saying what we want to say or that we will be censored”, he was going to cover the president’s recent trip to the UK “just like I normally would”.
He was then replaced by a voiceover describing Mr Trump as “incredibly handsome” and “making America great again”.
Jimmy Fallon on Thursday’s Tonight Show. Pic: The Tonight Show X
Seth Meyers also joined the fray.
“Donald Trump is on his way back from a trip to the UK,” he said at the top of his show Late Night, “while back here at home, his administration is pursuing a crackdown on free speech… and completely unrelated, I just wanted to say that I have always admired and respected Mr Trump.
“I have always believed he was a visionary, an innovator, a great president, and an even better golfer.”
Kimmel’s removal from the show he has hosted for two decades led to criticism that free speech was under attack.
But speaking on his visit to Britain, Donald Trump claimed he was suspended “because he had bad ratings”.
It came after fellow late-night host Colbert saw his programme cancelled earlier this year, which fans claimed was also down to his criticism of Mr Trump, who has since railed against Kimmel, Meyers, and Fallon.
He has posted on Truth Social that they should all be cancelled.
Jimmy Kimmel hosting last year’s Oscars. Pic: AP
Figures from both the worlds of entertainment and politics lined up to lament ABC’s removal of Kimmel.
Chat show doyenne David Letterman said people should not be fired just because they don’t “suck up” to what he called “an authoritarian” president.
During an appearance at The Atlantic Festival 2025 in New York on Thursday night, he added: “It’s no good. It’s silly. It’s ridiculous.
“I feel bad about this, because we all see where see this is going, correct? It’s managed media.”
Barack Obama on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2016. Pic: Susan Walsh/AP
Former US president Barack Obama wrote on X: “After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.
“This is precisely the kind of government coercion that the First Amendment was designed to prevent, and media companies need to start standing up rather than capitulating it.”
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment12 months agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024