CORTLAND — In one week alone this month, 40 people in Onondaga County were admitted to a hospital for xylazine-related overdoses.

In October, the Tompkins County Sheriff’s Office put out a public safety alert for xylazine after “seeing an increase in overdoses where Narcan has either not been effective or has required multiple doses.” Cortland County saw two xylazine deaths last year.

The drug is working its way across the state, arrest records show, including an arrest last week in Rome.

“There’s a new drug that’s appearing and being mixed with fentanyl,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Friday, March 11, in Cortland. “That could really become a nightmare for Central New York, for all of New York, and even for all over the country. It’s called xylazine. It’s a deadly skin-rotting zombie drug. It’s commonly referred to as ‘tranq’ on the streets, and it’s bringing a horrific wave of drug overdoses and deaths to our community.”

Schumer had a news conference Friday outside the Cortland County Sheriff’s Office to raise awareness of the drug xylazine, which has been found in Cortland in the last year. The drug’s spread increased across the U.S., reports the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. The organization also notes that from 2020 to 2021, the drug’s prevalence increased 61% in the Northeast.

Xylazine, a large-animal tranquilizer, is a non-opioid drug that is not U..S. Food and Drug Administration approved for humans because of its effects on the central nervous system. Because it is a non-opioid substance, naloxone – which blocks the effect of an opioid overdose – is not an effective treatment in cases of overdose.

Schumer has a three-pronged approach to end the distribution of xylazine:

• First, he said the FDA “needs to accelerate its operations to track down illicit sources of xylazine.”
• Second, he wants to “supercharge” the federal COPS Hiring Program with $537 million in new funds to aid in stopping drug trafficking.
• Third, Schumer said he’s calling for boosts to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The drug is often mixed with fentanyl and heroin, sometimes without people using the drug knowing that xylazine is in what they’re consuming, reports the state Department of Health. Naloxone should still be administered to stop the effects of other drugs, and may need to be administered multiple times.

To help xylazine overdoses, test kits are under development, Schumer said.

“I don’t think there’s really one that’s very reliable. Is that correct? Yeah, and that’s the problem,” Schumer said. “And that’s what we need. That’s the third part of this approach, to right away come up with a testing regime.”

Schumer introduced Dr. Tolani Ajagbe, the medical director of Crouse Health Addiction Treatment Services in Syracuse. “You talked about drug testing earlier on, not just for law enforcement, but also for the patient, the users themselves,” Ajagbe said.

Cortland County had two xylazine-related deaths in 2022. Officials didn’t know until the coroner’s report came back.

“That’s the problem,” said Sharon MacDougall, director of community services for the county Mental Health Department. “Toxicology doesn’t catch this. A lot of the original toxicology tests didn’t show it off.”

This can be attributed to the short half-life of the drug, said Lisa Hoeschele, executive director and CEO of Family and Children’s Counseling Services.

“Once an individual reaches the hospital, it’s very important that fentanyl is tested for and if there’s xylazine testing occuring, it’s important to tell those people in the treatment community what’s happening there because by the time that individual is discharged, the xylazine has already dissipated and the fentanyl is what’s left,” Hoeschele said. ‘Ninety-eight percent of people who are being seen at the ER, or testing for xylazine, also test for fentanyl. It’s a double-edged sword there and a double-edged treatment.”