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- Prohibition Gave Us Xylazine in Fentanyl. the Solution, Drug Warriors Say, is More Prohibition.
Prohibition Gave Us Xylazine in Fentanyl. the Solution, Drug Warriors Say, is More Prohibition.
The emergence of the animal tranquilizer as an opioid adulterant illustrates once again how the war on drugs makes drug use more dangerous.
by Jacob Sullum Reason.com
The emergence of the animal tranquilizer xylazine as a fentanyl adulterant, like the emergence of fentanyl as a heroin booster and substitute, has prompted law enforcement officials to agitate for new legal restrictions and criminal penalties. That response is fundamentally misguided, because the threat it aims to address is a familiar consequence of prohibition, which creates a black market in which drug composition is highly variable and unpredictable. Instead of recognizing their complicity in maintaining and magnifying that hazard, drug warriors always think the answer is more of the same.
Xylazine was first identified as a fentanyl adulterant in 2006, and today it is especially common in Puerto Rico, Philadelphia, Maryland, and Connecticut. In Philadelphia between 2010 and 2015, according to a 2021 BMJ article, xylazine was detected in less than 2 percent of drug-related deaths involving heroin and/or fentanyl.