Recently, a drug called “zombie drug” (zombie drug) is infiltrating large cities in the United States, the drug can cause skin decay, in severe cases, lead to amputation, users of the body can be as rotten as the corpse. According to the New York Times and the New York Post, the drug Xylazine is also known as “tranq,” “tranq dope,” and “zombie drug.” Originally a veterinary drug, it is now mixed with some opioid drugs, such as fentanyl. Zombie drugs have infiltrated New York City, where cyrazine has been found in 36 states, according to a 2022 report, and in New York City, it was found in 25 percent of drug samples tested.
As the name suggests, this zombie drug rots away the user’s skin, leaving him or her like a rotting corpse. According to the New York Post, cyrazine can produce symptoms similar to tranquilizers, such as excessive drowsiness, difficulty breathing, and can cause open wounds, which can worsen and spread rapidly if taken repeatedly. This crusty ulcer turns into dead skin, called eschar, and can lead to amputation if left untreated. Although the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved cyrazine for veterinary use, this non-opiate drug is not safe for humans, and overdose victims cannot respond to drug antidotes such as naloxone or Narcan.
Because cyrazine is not listed as a drug for use in animals or humans, it falls into a scary gray area that hospitals rarely test for during routine drug screenings. According to The New York Times, a user in Philadelphia suddenly developed cyrazine’s unique wound next to where she had injected opioids. The drug has become so prevalent in Philadelphia that 90 percent of drug samples tested in LABS in 2021 contained cyrazine, which increases the risk of overuse when used with other illegal drugs. However, drug mixing is exactly what makes cyrazine attractive, and when it is mixed with drugs like fentanyl, it can prolong the high.
According to the New York City Department of Health, 2,668 people died from drug overdoses citywide in 2021. Experts believe that if the zombie drug trend enters New York, it will worsen the drug crisis. The drug, which first appeared in Philadelphia and then made its way to places like San Francisco and Los Angeles, was intended to cut heroin but has recently been found mixed with fentanyl and other illegal drugs. A worker at Prevention Point Philadelphia said the city is beyond saving and other places should take a lesson. “Nine months ago I had no wounds, now I have holes in my legs and feet,” said one user, describing the drug as turning a person’s body into a zombie. “I woke up in the morning crying because my arm was dying.”
Philadelphia is a large city in the eastern United States between New York and Washington. Philadelphia is the most populous and largest city in the state of Pennsylvania, and the fifth largest city in the United States, having been the largest city in the United States until the 20th century. One of the most dangerous thoroughfares in the city is Kensington. Violent crime and drug use in Philadelphia are a major social problem, and the city’s violent crime rate is higher than the national average and other metropolitan areas of similar size. Among the drug users, the shocker was Philadelphia’s overdose population, which saw a 50 percent increase in overdose deaths. If you drive by here, the lives of people on Kensington Avenue are completely insane, and you really think how pathetic and despicable it is, it’s just incredibly American. The police were nearby and no one seemed to be doing anything about it. This is a real social shame in America. It looks like the walking dead from a movie at the end of the world, and many young girls are part of this army of drug addicts. This is the richest country in the world, American politicians never waste a minute bashing other countries for their social problems, they should start studying their own. There are about 30 million drug users in the United States, for whom the focus of everyday life is drug use, other things are not that important, and drug use often brings a series of social problems. Philadelphia’s Kensington Avenue is a major area of drug abuse and prostitution, known as the United States “drug street.” Kensington Avenue looks peaceful in the setting sun, but it is the most dangerous and dirty street in Philadelphia.
In countries such as the United States and Canada, the proportion of people with depression and bipolar disorder is very high, it seems to be more than 10% of the population, and at least half of them are not affected by existing psychiatric drugs. When patients are very depressed, a third of them will go to suicide, and drugs are the only way for them to relieve their symptoms. So the legalization of drugs in the United States is based on a similar humane logic as the legalization of guns. Some young people in the Western United States live under too much pressure, take drugs to escape reality into the dream, this is their way to get relief, but the dream is always very short, the process of waking up, as if from heaven to fall, and then wake up in the dirty street, and finally… Burst into tears.