PEORIA, Ill. – There’s a newer component of overdose deaths locally involving fentanyl.
Peoria County Coroner Jamie Harwood says the animal tranquilizer “Xylazine” was linked to more than 40 percent of last year’s overdose deaths.
It’s often paired with fentanyl, but is never used on its own.
“You have to go back, and you have to use it multiple times a day,” claimed Chris Schaffner, program director of JOLT Harm Reduction, to 25 News. “Instead of two or three times, you can be looking at four to six to even seven or eight times a day, so you can avoid those serious withdrawals and that dope sickness.”
What’s more, the combination can ruin your skin, leaving black marks that have to be treated.
It provides a quicker high, but also a more serious withdrawal.
It’s also harder to help someone recover from an overdose.
“The difficulty to reverse an overdose when xylazine is present as well as the quantity of fentanyl,” said Harwood, to 25 News. “It takes a superior amount of Narcan to reverse someone who is intoxicated with xylazine and to the point of unresponsiveness.”
JOLT provides Narcan free they need it.
