Tranq, a dangerous veterinary tranquilizer, is rapidly spreading throughout Los Angeles, alarming public health experts and federal agents, who say the drug, when mixed with fentanyl, is causing a wave of overdoses and gruesome injuries, particularly among the city’s homeless.
Tranq, also known as xylazine, was originally developed as an animal sedative and is now commonly known as the “zombie drug.” It is now being trafficked into the United States and laced with street fentanyl, causing flesh-rotting abscesses and putting users in a semi-conscious, trance-like state.
Researchers warn that standard overdose treatments, such as Narcan, are ineffective against it because it is not an opioid.
“This is becoming the new normal of opioid use,” Dr. Joseph Friedman of the University of California, San Diego, said. Friedman has led studies on xylazine’s emergence in the region, and his recent findings show the tranquilizer appearing in fentanyl samples across Southern California and even Mexico.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials say they’ve already intercepted 48,000 pounds of narcotics this year, with xylazine appearing in alarming amounts.
“Where we are seeing it is mixed with fentanyl,” said Sidney Aki, Director of the San Diego Field Office.
Despite the low absolute seizure numbers, DEA officials report a significant increase in xylazine presence in Los Angeles, with pill and powder seizures more than doubling between 2023 and 2024. Agents were also concerned about underreported data, pointing out that many local labs do not routinely test for xylazine because it is not a controlled substance.
Special Agent Brian Clark of the DEA’s San Diego drug lab revealed that recent seizures from Los Angeles contained kilos of fentanyl-laced xylazine dyed purple—an apparent marketing tactic used by drug traffickers. “Enough to kill everyone in downtown L.A.,” he predicted.
According to DEA L.A. Field Division Special Agent Matthew Allen, users on Skid Row continue to be particularly vulnerable.
“What better market than people who are mentally ill and drug addicts? Preying on people already down,” he said.
