South Dakota sees first positive case of 'zombie drug'

Public officials calling for action to combat 'flesh-eating' xylazine

(Randy Laybourne / Unsplash.com)

Illicit drugs laced with a flesh-rotting chemical have plagued the coasts for years. Now — they’ve arrived in South Dakota.

Until this month, South Dakota remained one of two states in the country where law enforcement had yet to experience positive tests for an animal tranquilizer in street drugs called xylazine, which in recent years has increasingly become a go-to cutting agent dope dealers are using in fentanyl, meth, cocaine and heroin. That changed earlier this month, and state and local officials say swift action is needed to stave of a public health crisis in South Dakota.

“I can affirmatively state we have cases and it’s here,” Attorney General Marty Jackley told The Dakota Scout this week.

Known on the street as “tranq” and “tranq dope,” xylazine is also sometimes referred to as “zombie drug” because its unsuspecting users often experience sores and wounds that cause skin tissue to die and rot away, sometimes even leading to amputations, according to Drug Enforcement Administration and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

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