Montreal public health warning about street drugs mixed with animal tranquillizer

Montreal public health officials arewarning of a new and potentially deadly ingredient increasingly turning up in street drugs.

The drug, xylazine, is a sedative and pain reliever for animals. It is not intended for human consumption, but it is being cut with opioids to get users high for longer,according toJean-Francois Mary,executive director of CACTUS safe injection site in Montreal.

Xylazine is hard to detect when mixed with other drugs. Montreal public health became aware of its increased use after studying drug-users' urine last Fall.

Preliminary results showedxylazinewaspresent in five per cent of the tests.

Mary warns there are serious risks associated with this drug, especially when combined with alcohol. He says xylazinecan cause death, or skin necrosis necessitatingamputations.

He also raises questions about the length of timeit took Montreal public health to release their data.

"We should not have a six month delay to learn that we have such issues. They need to step up and provide us with almost real time data so that we can act on the frontline," he said.

Montreal public health is recommendingnaloxone for opioid overdoses and to consider xylazine exposure if patients are not responding to naloxone.