White House to take action on alarming rise in 'zombie drug deaths'

The White House is taking action follow a rise in deaths linked to a drug which rots the skin of those who use it.

Xylazine, often referred to as Tranq or the zombie drug, is an animal tranquilizer mixed with fentanyl and is killing over 100,000 Americans a year.

So,the White House has now released a new six-point action plan to tackle the crisis.

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."

It comes following the most recent data from 20 US states and the District of Columbia, showing the monthly percentage of fentanyl-associated deaths where xylazine was detected has increased from 2.9 per cent to 10.9 per cent.

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

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 per cent of fentanyl powder and 7 per cent of fentanyl tablets contained xylazine.

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."

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."

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.