From the New York Post: Exposed tendons and bones. Wounds that attract maggots. A foul smell from dead tissue.
Even as more potent drugs have hit the streets, the flesh-rotting animal tranquilizer xylazine is still wreaking havoc across the US. Known as “tranq,” the illegal sedative is often mixed with fentanyl to enhance and extend the high.
In 2023, 30% of fentanyl powder samples and 6% of fentanyl pills tested by the DEA were contaminated with xylazine.
And in Philadelphia — widely identified as “ground zero” for the tranq crisis — the drug was involved in 38% of all unintentional overdose deaths in 2023.
The report quotes Dr. Asif Ilyas, an orthopedic surgeon and opioid use researcher at Rothman Orthopaedics and Drexel University in Philadelphia, who explained, “In terms of the frequency with which we’re seeing patients with xylazine-related wounds, five years ago we were not seeing any. Now we are seeing at the larger university hospitals around Philadelphia daily, if not weekly, these patients with these problems.”
Xylazine is being mixed with fentanyl to prolong the sedative effects. After a user injects the mixture, it relaxes their muscles, and triggers a zombie-like trance by decreasing the release of the “fight or flight” neurotransmitter norepinephrine in the central nervous system.
The drug causes a dangerously low heart rate, and narrows blood vessels, which ultimately causes the grotesque skin wound that mimic the flesh-eating bacteria. Due to the horrific flesh wounds, amputations are even needed in some cases.
“The worst case is the limbs literally auto-amputate all of the soft tissue necrosis off the bones and patients will come in essentially mummified or their limbs are auto-amputated,” Dr. Ilyas said.
Doctors warn the ‘zombie drug’ xylazine — a horse tranquilizer mixed with fentanyl — is the new crisis in US
Surgeons report patients arriving with decaying flesh and bones exposed — sometimes losing limbs on their own pic.twitter.com/a1NGnvxf8o
— RT (@RT_com) October 15, 2025
The following short documentary just posted to YouTube last week highlights the horrors of the drug epidemic in Kensington, a drug-infested area of Philadelphia.
READ MORE and see PHOTOS from the New York Post.
Follow us on X (Formerly Twitter.)
The DML News App: www.X.com/DMLNewsApp
