Deadly Mix: Cartels Adding Medetomidine to Street Drugs

Public health officials say Mexican cartels and drug gangs inside the U.S. are mixing a dangerous chemical sedative called medetomidine into fentanyl and other drugs sold on the street.  The combination has triggered a new wave of overdoses and deaths that began in late April and accelerated in May.  Medetomidine, most often used by veterinarians as an animal tranquilizer, but also formulated for use in human patients (but only in carefully controlled medical settings), has been linked to recent mass overdose outbreaks in Philadelphia, Chicago, and Toronto, Canada.  Experts say the chemical, mixed into counterfeit pills and powders sold on the street, slows the human heart rate to dangerous levels.  ER doctors have noticed that "Patients were coming in with very low heart rates.  As low as in the 20s.  A normal heart rate is sixty to a hundred [beats per minute] so 20s is extremely low."  Medetomidine is even more powerful than xylazine, experts told NPR.  No one knows what long-term health effects this new cocktail of chemicals will cause in the human body.  Xylazine and medetomidine don't respond to Narcan, the medication used to reverse most opioid overdoses.  Unlike fentanyl and xylazine, testing strips are not yet available to detect medetomidine.  Experts say the decision to experiment with xylazine, medetomidine or other chemicals in illicit street drug combinations likely reflect which substances are cheap, poorly regulated and readily available.  Fatal overdoses in the U.S. dropped 3 percent last year, but roughly 107,000 people in the U.S. still died after using street drugs.  Addiction experts worry modest gains in saving lives of drug users could be reversed as more toxic chemicals like medetomidine and xylazine hit the streets.  Michigan's Health Department is encouraging users to layer harm reduction strategies to lessen the risk of overdose: take it slow, use less, carry Narcan, do not use alone, monitor breathing, etc.  The link to the article can be found in the Parish newsletter and on St. Mary's FaceBook page.