(The Center Square) – Ohio has become one of the first states to schedule a drug used by vets to sedate animals that is showing up mixed with heroin, fentanyl or synthetic opioids as a schedule III controlled substance.
Gov. Mike DeWine signed an executive order Wednesday morning reclassifying xylazine as a controlled substance drug, saying the rate of overdose is growing throughout the state. The drug is not approved for human use.
“This lethal drug has dangerous side effects which can’t be reversed by naloxone, so there is no way to reverse its impact on people,” DeWine said. “The rate of overdose deaths involving a mixture of xylazine and other drugs is increasing at an alarming rate, which is exactly why we need to take action now.”
According to the Ohio Department of Health, overdose deaths involving xylazine have increased each year in Ohio since 2019, with 15 in 2019, 45 in 2020 and 75 in 2021.
This year, the Health Department has recorded 113 xylazine-involved overdose deaths as of March 14. Of those, 248 unintentional drug overdose deaths, 99.2%, also involved fentanyl.
In 2022, Ohio Narcotics Intelligence Center intelligence led DeWine and the Ohio Board of Pharmacy to add nine emerging dangerous substances to Ohio’s controlled drug schedule. Xylazine is the first dangerous substance added to Ohio’s controlled drug schedule in 2023.
According to center, some crime labs in Ohio estimate that 25% to 30% of current fentanyl cases also include xylazine. The presence of xylazine in illegal drugs and the number of overdoses involving xylazine, however, are believed to be underreported because most toxicology and crime labs do not test for the presence of uncontrolled substances, according to a news release.
Scheduling xylazine as a schedule III controlled substance will allow for more robust testing and will make the sale and trafficking of xylazine for illicit use a criminal offense, DeWine said in the release.
In October, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency issued a report on the growing threat of xylazine mixed with illicit drugs, and it issued a public safety alert on the widespread threat of fentanyl mixed with xylazine.
“Xylazine is making the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, fentanyl, even deadlier,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said. “DEA has seized xylazine and fentanyl mixtures in 48 of 50 states. The DEA Laboratory System is reporting that in 2022 approximately 23% of fentanyl powder and 7% of fentanyl pills seized by the DEA contained xylazine.”
On Tuesday, a bill was introduced in Congress to restrict access to xylazine.
