Test strips for flesh-eating zombie drug ‘tranq’ are being rolled out in the US in an effort to curb accidental overdoses.
Xylazine, an animal tranquilizer nicknamed ‘tranq’, has become a go-to cutting agent for drug dealers looking to stretch supply and boost effect of illicit drugs like cocaine, MDMA and heroin.
But the drug can cause fatal overdoses and causes users to as the drug ravages rots flesh and leaves gaping wounds, requiring amputation in extreme cases.
The new testing kits — which cost just $2 per test — are available from BTNX Buy Liberty Caps Online and give a result within five minutes.
Xylazine test kits have been developed by Canadian company BTNX, who also manufacture fentanyl testing strips
The DEA says xylazine has now been detected in 48 out of 50 states in the US.
A study published in December and involving 60,000 US adult drug tests showed xylazine was detected in samples from most states (pictured above)
The test strips will also be available to public health workers, health departments, and grassroots harm-reduction groups as well as individual drug takers to test substances for traces of xylazine.
Xylazine in fentanyl has been detected in 48 states and up to a quarter of seized fentanyl tests positive for the sedative, with the two drugs making a deadly combination.
Anne Milgram, of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), warned last week: ‘Xylazine is making the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, fentanyl, even deadlier.’
Since 2021, xylazine has been found in more than 90 percent of samples of purported heroin or fentanyl in Philadelphia — making it the most common mixer in the local drug supply.
In light of the spread of xylazine-contaminated fentanyl, lateral flow style test kits have been developed by Canadian company BTNX, who also manufacture fentanyl strips.
The testing strips work the same as the existing ones for fentanyl, which are small strips of paper that can detect the presence of fentanyl in all different types of drugs.
Alex Krotulski, a forensic toxicologist at the Center for Forensi the strips would be priced at $200 for Basic Principles a box of 100 tests, which is significantly more than test strips for fentanyl.
This month, the Food and Drug Administration () announced it would restrict the flow of ‘tranq’ into the country.
<div class="art-ins mol-factbox floatRHS health" data-version="2" id="mol-00afb5f0-ccac-11ed-bbf8-8321725c20c4" website test strip can spot deadly cutting agent 'tranq' in street drugs