You mix this with fentanyl, now you’re increasing the risk of overdose. It’s mated into the drug supply and it’s extremely dangerous. Hey everybody, welcome back to your channel. This is Dr. B, Dr. B Addiction Recovery. And the topic I want to discuss today or the question that was asked of me is what do I know about Trank Dope? T-R-A-N-Q. Trank, I presume it’s short for tranquilizer. Let’s get started. What I know about Trank Dope,

about as much as every other professional knows right now at this time. But let me give you a little bit of a background about it. Usually, for the most part, it’s a mixture of this thing called xylosine and fentanyl. Xylosine is, you can think of it as an animal tranquilizer or an animal anesthetic. It’s sedating, it’s used as an analgesic, it’s used as a sedative, and it’s also used as a muscle relaxant for animals.

We actually have seen this since the early 2000s with the Puerto Rican community in the U.S., but it wasn’t as widespread use as it is today. And that was because of its prevalence in Puerto Rico, but at this time, at least 35 to 40 states, they’re seeing these in the overdose deaths. And in one particular area in Philadelphia, it’s really made its way

into the illicit drug supply. And to give you an example of that, I was looking at some numbers from 2000 to 2015. They kind of looked at all the deaths and about 2% of those overdose deaths had xylosine in the toxicology. In 2019, that number had jumped up to 31%. So basically what they’re doing is taking the illicitly manufactured fentanyl, cutting it down with xylosine. Why? It’s cheap and it really reduces the price of dope as well.

Most of the users for a long time were not aware of this stuff in it. One of the things that it does, it really knocks a person down, decreases respiratory depression, decreases blood pressure, decreases heart rate, decreases respiratory rate. This is by itself. This is without the fentanyl and it actually creates a very heavy sedating effect. You mix this with fentanyl,

now you’re increasing the risk of overdose. Reversal of overdoses of opiates that would usually incorporate the use of Narcan will not work on this stuff. So if you have Narcan, if you have an opiate in addition to xylosine in your system, presumably this will reverse the part of the drugs in your system that are opiates, but it won’t reduce the impact of the xylosine. In addition, I’m not sure and I don’t think anyone knows how the combination of

the drug may have some byproduct that may increase the effect of the respiratory depression and the overall picture of the overdose. So none of this is known. It’s mated into the drug supply and it’s extremely dangerous. The other thing that they’re seeing with it as you’re getting chronic open wounds and sores when people are injecting this stuff with the fentanyl and a lot of people have asked me why is that i don’t know and i’m not sure if anyone

completely knows one thing of interest is some of these open wounds are occurring at sites other than the person’s injection site and you can think about why. Now do we know if xylosine by itself is corrosive and necrotic to tissue once it’s injected? I don’t think we really know because we don’t have a documented history of injecting human beings with this stuff. Is there a chemical reaction of the mixture of that with

the fentanyl that causes necrosis and highly corrosive interaction with the superficial skin? We don’t know. Keep in mind that your average drug user that’s buying this stuff on the street already is suffering from poor health conditions and a compromised immune system and poor nutritional status. And hence, once you get a wound in that way, which is already a problem for the healthiest

of people, now you’re going to have even more problems. Okay. An open wound is a source of infection that can eventually lead to systemic infection and at best amputations, at worst, death. So, Trank Dope. It’s made its way into the illicit drug system. It’s in at least 35 to 40 states, if not more. It’s causing havoc in Philadelphia.

So, be really careful out there. If you’re not in recovery, if you’re out there using, use the best judgment that you can and protect yourself. Best you can do is seek help and recovery. I hope this gives you some information. I was really hoping for this to be a public service message. If you like the content, even if you don’t like it, please like and subscribe. It gives you something to argue about in the comments below. I’ll see you guys soon. Peace. you