Xylazine Test Strips

What is a Xylazine Dip test?

Xylazine, known by its street names: tranq dope and zombie drug, is used in veterinary medicine as an animal tranquilizer and sedative for large animals. Having been identified as an illicit adulterant in drug use in Puerto Rico in the early 2000s, it’s now reached public notoriety for its shocking effects on the human body and the many drug overdose deaths associated with its use. Xylazine test strips are a tool used to detect the presence of xylazine in substances. These strips function in a manner similar to other drug test strips, with a color change indicating the presence of the drug. The primary use of these strips is in harm reduction settings, where they can be used to test substances for unexpected or potentially harmful adulterants.

Xylazine is not a controlled substance, however, the Drug Enforcement Administration has urged the public to be aware of its dangers as well as its being reportedly mixed into illicit drugs. Reports have shown that xylazine has been found in drug mixtures that contain illicit opioids like the synthetic opioid fentanyl and heroin.

The use of Xylazine and fentanyl has contributed to an increasing number of overdose deaths in northeast communities like New York City and parts of Rhode Island and has been spreading westward toward California in communities near San Francisco and Los Angeles.

What Does Xylazine Do to Humans?

Xylazine is not approved for human use. It is only FDA-approved for its use on animals. Today,it is only available to licensed veterinarians who are trained to use it on treating non-human mammals. Xylazine has made its way into the illicit drug supply where both drug addicts and other unsuspecting users have experienced its shocking physical side effects.

Known as the zombie drug, illegal xylazine use in injection form has been tied to conditions that include rotting skin and skin ulcers around the injection site. These severe skin wounds have been known to become necrotic and in some cases rot the skin to the bones. There have also been reports of patients requiring amputation from the growing increase of the wounds.

Due to its nature as an animal sedative, xylazine has been known to cause in humans: respiratory depression, muscle relaxation, and low blood pressure. It also delivers extreme side effects such as heavy drowsiness and fatigue causing the user to have an emaciated look. This certainly explains, in part why xylazine is known by one of its street names: the zombie drug.

1. Remove the Xylazine test strip from its sealed pouch and use it as soon as possible. For best results, perform the assay within an hour.
2. After that, hold the strip by the end, where you can see the product name. So, to avoid contamination, do not touch the strip membrane.
3. Then, holding the strip vertically, dip the test strip in the urine specimen for at least 10-15 seconds. Do not immerse above the maximum line (MAX) on the test strip. That’s about 1/5th of the way up the strip.
4. After the Xylazine drug test has finished, then remove the strip from the specimen and place it on a non-absorbent flat surface. Start the timer and wait for the colored band(s) to appear. Finally, read the result at 5 minutes. Do not interpret it after 10 minutes.

Xylazine Side Effects

Xylazine is not approved for human use, as it’s currently FDA-approved as an animal sedative in veterinary medicine. For this reason, there is not much research being conducted into the study of xylazine use in humans.

However, even though xylazine is not for human consumption, it has been reported that humans have experienced similar effects to that of the animals it was meant to be used on. Examples of this include hypotension (low blood pressure and low heart rate) and respiratory depression. In some cases, the user can be rendered comatose.

Some, although not all of the xylazine-reported users have exhibited skin ulcers around the injection site leading to severe infections and in some cases necrotizing skin. Because xylazine has been formulated for the biological makeup of animals, not all side effects on humans are known at this time.

Is Xylazine a Controlled Substance?

Xylazine is not a controlled substance. Controlled substances are drugs that are regulated by federal law. Traces of xylazine have been found in the illicit drug supply sold by drug dealers in the illegal drug trade here in the United States. Early uses have been traced back to Puerto Rico in the early 2000s where xylazine had been used as an adulterant in other drug mixtures.

The prevalence of xylazine as a new drug being used outside of its purpose as an animal sedative has caused alarm due to its strong opioid-like effects. There are an increasing amount of overdose-related deaths reported during the current opioid crisis. In recent years xylazine abuse has in some cases, been likened to individuals looking to extend the effects of other drugs like fentanyl or heroin.

When a person experiences a xylazine overdose and has used a drug mixture containing xylazine-containing fentanyl, the person may appear to be unresponsive and may appear to have a gray blush skin coloration.

What is Xylazine Used for?

Because illicit xylazine is commonly found in illicit opioid drug mixtures, xylazine addicts will look to the drug to lengthen the euphoric effects of other drugs such as fentanyl. This is also true with mixtures containing heroin as injection-drug use with xylazine has been reported by the Drug Administration.
As a veterinary sedation drug, xylazine is FDA-approved for animals. Before Xylazine had made headlines as an illicit drug of concern, veterinary xylazine has been and continues to be used in veterinary medicine for large mammals like cattle, deer, horses, mules, and elk to name a few.

Due to the recent discovery of xylazine being used as an adulterant in illicit drugs, the FDA is starting to restrict certain imports of xylazine and with the help of the DEA and other federal agencies, they can work to ascertain that all shipments of xylazine will be allocated for legitimate use.

Is Xylazine Addictive?

Frequent use of the illicit drug xylazine can certainly increase the potential for addiction. As xylazine has been introduced as a cutting agent in the illicit drug supply, many fentanyl addicts and those who are already battling drug abuse and opioid use have become addicted to these drug mixtures.

Xylazine has almost always been identified alongside fentanyl so there is definitely a danger of this drug combination becoming addictive. Injecting or consuming an unknown amount of the deadly drug xylazine can prove to be especially lethal due to its extreme sedative effects.

Some who have injected trace amounts of xylazine have reported falling asleep for a long period of time, and some reports indicate that xylazine use can cause users to fall into a coma.