CINCINNATI — A deadly batch of drugs reported around Ohio triggered a warning from outreach workers seeing the mixture resist life-saving treatment.
While the total number of overdoses in Hamilton County so far this year is significantly lower than the previous five years, there is concern about "Tranq Dope," a narcotics mixture involving the tranquilizer Xylazine, a sedative veterinarians use on animals.
"It's personal," Tonja Catron, an outreach worker for the S.O.A.R. Initiative, a Columbus-based non-profit founded by college students that works to prevent overdoses through harm reduction strategies.
Catron, a drug and alcohol abuse therapist who is six years into her own recovery from opioid use lost her best friend, Farah, to drugs mixed with Fentanyl last year. Now, Catron sees an alarming overdose trend.
"I think it was two or three weeks ago we had 10 (overdoses) back to back," she said. "It is not responding to the Narcan, the Naloxone, that we normally give to people to reverse an opioid (overdose). It's either not responding or it's very, very, very slow to respond. So, I was like 'wait a minute. Tranq Dope's here.'"
Anonymous users sent S.O.A.R. similar reports, which led to a bad batch alert issued Tuesday.
While their workers mostly see Xylazine mixed with opioids, the Hamilton County Coroner's office said they've seen 15 cases that involve Xylazine mixed with fentanyl or fentanyl analogs.
Xylazine can slow heart rates and cause lung failure, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency.
"Our greatest concern is that, no matter people's choices, they deserve to stay alive," Catron said. "This is killing our people."
The most recent "Tranq Dope" overdose death in Hamilton County killed a 34-year-old July 4, according to the coroner's office. The mixture is hardly out of sight and out of mind, though.
"It's just becoming a more increasingly common adulterant," Dr. Melissa Anderson, BrightView Health Director of Public Policy and Advocacy said.
Dr. Anderson pointed out research that found Xylazine, fentanyl and heroin samples seized in Philadelphia. That happening one state away makes her concerned about what lies ahead for people battling addiction around Cincinnati.
"They're aware that this Russian Roulette," Dr. Anderson said. "Unfortunately it still remains easier to purchase street medication than it is to find an addiction medicine doctor and get a legitimate prescription for medication treatment."
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