FLORENCE, Ky. — The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has reported a widespread threat of fentanyl mixed with xylazine—an animal tranquilizer, known as “tranq,”

What You Need To Know

  • The Drug Enforcement Admistration warns of a widespread threat from xylazine—an animal tranquilizer, mixed with fentanyl

  • Brighton Recovery Center is working to assist any clients who may fall victim to the drug

  • The Northern Kentucky Health Department can only distribute xylazine testing strips at syringe exchange events

  • According to the DEA, the CDC reports over 107,000 people have died between August 2021 and August 2022 from drug poisoning 

In northern Kentucky, harm reduction educator Seth Steele is working overtime, educating the community on how to use xylazine testing strips.

Steel said using the strips is easy. ”Typically, you can fill just kind of a bottle cap with water, and in theory, that would have the substance that somebody purchased in it. They could leave this in there for about 15 seconds and it will test whether it’s positive.”

He said the Northern Kentucky Health Department and leaders in Ohio have seen an increased presence of xylazine, or “tranq,” a mixed with fentanyl, creating a new challenge in the fight against opioid addiction.

“We frequently work with Hamilton County Public Health and Caracole. And we’ve seen a lot of the same things as it pertains to xylazine,” Steel said. “Specifically for the past five to six years, the rise of fentanyl, whether people are using opioids or not, fentanyl is kind of made its way into most drug supplies, regardless of what they intend to buy,” he continued.

Brighton Recovery Center service director Janie Hamilton said there is a lack of education around the drug, but she has seen program participants affected.

“I think the biggest exposure we see is from those wounds,” Hamilton explained. 

Xylazine can cause skin ulcers and rotting wounds that can lead to infections and even amputations. While Steele and his team are doing everything they can, they’re legally limited to where there can distribute the testing strips.

“Due to paraphernalia laws that are currently in place in Kentucky, we can only distribute these at our syringe exchange locations in Kenton, Campbell and Grant counties,” Steele explained.

Hamilton added the lack of new regulations are failing those in need.

“It just seems at this point that we’ve done this with so many different things that it wouldn’t be so hard still to make our community safer,” she said. “To have testing strips out there and ways for people to be safer about their use.”

According to the DEA, the CDC reported 107,735 Americans died between August 2021 and August 2022 from drug poisoning, with a majority of those from synthetic opioids like fentanyl.

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