(WXYZ) — The DEA held a virtual press conference Tuesday announcing a crackdown on Xylazine, otherwise known as "Tranq," on the streets.
“What we’re going to describe to you today is literally a fight to save lives,” U.S Attorney for the Western District of Michigan Mark Totten said at the start of Tuesday’s press conference.
Xylazine is a powerful animal tranquilizer that can knock out a cow with only .10ml. Recently, drug dealers have been cutting Xylazine with fentanyl making the combination deadly.
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“Now, let me be clear, we are never going to prosecutor our way out of the opioid epidemic. This crisis demands an all hands on deck approach that includes medical professionals, mental health specialists, social service provides and others,” explained Totten.
This comes as police in Kalamazoo responded to 12 overdose calls and 6 deaths in 24 hours last week.
"What we're seeing is that Xylazine is the latest adulterant that we're seeing being introduced into fentanyl," Detroit Special Agent Orville Greene said.
Testing found that cocaine and an unknown substance also played a role in the overdoses
While Narcan works on reversing the deadly side effects of opioid overdoses, Xylazine is Narcan-resistant.
"It's a non-opiate that has the opiate-like effects," Special Agent Greene said. "However it also doesn't respond to Narcan."
In 2022 approximately 23% of fentanyl powder and 7% of fentanyl pills seized by the DEA contained Xylazine.
Doctor Jim Getzinger from Corewell Health says just the smallest amount of Xylazine can fully sedate a human.
"It's basically a medically induced coma and what we have to do is breath for you which involves putting the patient on life support," he said.
