HARRISBURG, Pa. – States are increasingly trying to restrict access to a powerful tranquilizer for animals, which appears in shipments of illicit drugs and contributes to a growing number of overdose deaths in humans.
Pennsylvania’s governor said Tuesday his administration would add xylazine (pronounced ZAI’-luh-zeen) on the state’s controlled substances list, tightened regulations on the drug and allowed authorities to charge people who violated those regulations.
The listing of xylazine as a Schedule III drug under Pennsylvania’s Controlled Substances Act was scheduled to take effect this Saturday.
“By planning, we’re giving law enforcement and others better tools to properly regulate, control and contain these drugs, make arrests and hopefully be prosecuted,” Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro said at a news briefing on Tuesday Philadelphia.
Last month, the Republican governor of Ohio signed an executive order restricting xylazine through the state’s Board of Pharmacy, and the Republican governor of West Virginia signed legislation to make it a controlled substance.
The Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia designations allow veterinarians to continue using the drug to calm animals, but it places stricter regulations on veterinarians on how it must be handled, tracked, and stored.
Xylazine is already a substance under my control in Florida, which means it is a crime to possess or sell it in that state. The state attorney general has asked the US Drug Enforcement Administration to immediately add xylazine to the controlled substances list.
Last week, the US Office of National Drug Control Policy called xylazine an “emerging threat” when mixed with the strong opioid fentanyl.
Xylazine, first approved for veterinary use in 1971, is used to calm cows, horses, sheep, and other animals. Sometimes referred to as “tranq,” it’s increasingly being added to fentanyl and heroin, officials say.
Officials are trying to understand how much of it is diverted for veterinary uses and how much is illegally manufactured. It’s not being followed extensively nationally, researchers say.
Still, xylazine has been detected in about 800 drug-related deaths in the US in 2020 and more than 3,000 in 2021, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
In Pennsylvania, xylazine contributed to 90 overdose deaths in 2017 and 575 overdose deaths in 2021, Shapiro’s office said.
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