A dangerous veterinarian tranquilizer known as Tranq is rapidly spreading across Los Angeles, and public health experts and federal agents are on alert as drugs are driving waves of overdose and horrifying injuries when mixed with fentanyl.
Tranq, or xylazine, often referred to as “zombie drugs,” was originally developed as an animal sedative. Currently, it is trafficked by the US, caught up in street fentanyl, causing abscesses that rotate the flesh, leaving users in a semi-conscious trance state.
Researchers warn that standard overdose treatments like Narcan are not opioids and therefore are ineffective against them.
“This is becoming a new normal in opioid use,” Dr. Joseph Friedman of the University of California, San Diego, told KTLA. Friedman is leading research into the emergence of xylazine in the region, and his recent findings show the emergence of tranquilizers that appear in fentanyl samples in Southern California and Mexico.
On Skid Row in Downtown LA, Tranq user Josh Booker shows KTLA his worse fingers, with damage caused by only three days of use.
Experts say xylazine, or Tranq, is driving a wave of overdose among the homeless in Los Angeles. June 2025 (KTLA)
“They cut fentanyl in the trunk…it gives you these blisters that come out of nowhere,” Booker said.
US Customs and Border Guard officials say they have already intercepted 48,000 pounds of drugs this year, and xylazine is appearing in awkward amounts.
“What we’re looking at is mixed with fentanyl,” said Sidney Aki, director of the San Diego Field Office.
Despite the low number of absolute seizures, DEA officials have reported a sharp increase in the presence of xylazine in Los Angeles, with more than doubled pill and powder seizures between 2023 and 2024. Agents also expressed concern about the missing data, and many local labs have noted that xylazine is routinely tested due to its condition as a non-introducing substance.
At DEA’s San Diego Drug Lab, special agent Brian Clark revealed that the recent attacks from LA contain xylazine-stained purple kilo covered in fentanyl, an apparent marketing tactic by drug traffickers. “It’s enough to kill everyone in downtown Los Angeles,” he warned.
Dea La Field Division Special Agent Matthew Allen said Skid Row users remain particularly vulnerable.
“What market is better than people who are mentally ill and addicts? They are preying on people who are already down,” he said.
Despite the risks, users like Booker continue to pursue highs.
“It’s the gamble we take,” he said. “That’s what we live together.”
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