Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was in Schenectady today to warn about a drug he says is proliferating in New York.
It was a warm welcome from Mayor Gary McCarthy Monday, but New York Senator Schumer was bringing a dire message: the fellow Democrat says a horse tranquilizer known as xylazine is fueling a spike in drug overdoses across upstate.
Schumer joined with local law enforcement leaders and elected officials at city fire headquarters, and outlined a three-prong plan to deal with the drug.
“Make no mistake about it. Xylazine is deadly, dangerous and it’s here,” he said.
Schumer says xylazine is inexpensive and popping up in overdoses linked to opioids and cocaine, and is moving east from Central New York. Saying the overdose reversing drug Narcan is not effective on xylazine, Schumer described its effects in graphic terms.
“It's a deadly, skin-rotting zombie drug, a deadly, skin-rotting zombie drug, commonly known as tranq on the streets, and it's bringing a horrific wave of drug overdoses and deaths to upstate New York,” he said. “This drug when injected can cause severe wounds to the skin, sometimes all the way to the bone. It causes dead tissue. It causes breathing and heart rate issues, and the infections from these wounds can often lead people to lose limbs.”
Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple says his department has been tracking xylazine since at least 2020.
“We've had a number of cases. Unfortunately, as the Senator mentioned, it's very hard to test for. And unless we see vials or some sort of remnants that it was there, we usually don't test for it,” he said. “But because it's so cheap, and because it still has the harmful effects of fentanyl and heroin, people are dying out there. So obviously we're going to continue our enforcement. But I think we really need to keep up our education and certainly our treatment.”
Schumer’s plan involves asking the Food and Drug Administration to accelerate regulation of xylazine to halt the import of the drug from overseas suppliers; increasing funding for local law enforcement response under the Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS, program by $537 million; and supporting local addiction service providers with federal funding.
Reached for comment on Schumer’s call for the FDA to increase scrutiny of imports, the administration pointed WAMC to a Feb. 28 announcementthat it is working to restrict the unlawful entry of “xylazine active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished dosage form drug products into the country,” saying the action aims to prevent the drug’s entry for illicit purposes while maintaining availability for legitimate use on animals.
Keith Brown is Schenectady County’s Public Health Director.
“Toxicology reports indicate that in 2022, we had 57 overdose cases involving fentanyl and seven confirmed involving fentanyl and xylazine,” he said. “So far in 2023, we've already seen nine fatalities that involve fentanyl.”
Asked if he supports the idea of supervised injection sites as another measure to limit deadly drug use, Schumer said it’s a decision best left up to localities.
