Exposed tendons and bones. Wounds that attract maggots. A foul smell from dead tissue.

Even as more potent drugs have hit the streets, the flesh-rotting animal tranquilizer xylazine is still wreaking havoc across the US. Known as “tranq,” the illegal sedative is often mixed with fentanyl to enhance and extend the high.

In 2023, 30% of fentanyl powder samples and 6% of fentanyl pills tested by the DEA were contaminated with xylazine. 5

And in Philadelphia — widely identified as “ground zero” for the tranq crisis — the drug was involved in 38% of all unintentional overdose deaths in 2023.

Now, a Philadelphia orthopedic surgeon is warning that the tranq crisis is showing no signs of abating, even as the powerful veterinary sedative medetomidine and the industrial chemical B

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