Drug dealers have been cutting a type of veterinary tranquilizer into opioids such as fentanyl. The drug is complicating efforts to prevent overdoses and detoxify drug users because people can get addicted without even knowing it.
Medetomidine is a veterinary tranquilizer that drug dealers are now cutting into more expensive opioids to maximize profits, and add a little extra kick to the opioid’s effects.
Ashley Charzuk, executive director of the New Mexico Harm Reduction Collaborative, said part of the problem is a lot of drug users don’t know that’s happening.
“What they had thought was that there was just more fentanyl,” she said, “and that they were buying something that was, you know, ‘the good stuff’ basically.”
The NMHRC is a non-profit that provides harm reduction and overdose prevention services to people who use drugs. Charzuk said reversing an overdose on someone who has been using opioids cut with the tranquilizer is more difficult, because the victim will often stay asleep even after receiving Naloxone, the opioid reversal drug. And she said they often require external oxygen once they do start breathing again.
“A lot of people have cardiac events while they're withdrawing,” Charzuk said. “Withdrawal from medetomidine can be fatal, which is very different than what we're used to with fentanyl.”
The tranquilizer has a powerful sedative effect, and can even lead to hallucinations, especially at higher doses. Its chemical cousin, dexmedetomidine, is commonly used in humans as an anesthetic.
“If you've ever had a surgery or you've ever been put under for anything,” Charzuk said, “then you've been given dexmedetomidine along with several other different medications.”
She said withdrawal from opioids such as fentanyl can already be fatal, especially in patients with compromised health.
“But with medetomidine, you could have somebody that's normally very healthy that can experience a cardiac event during withdrawal,” she said.
So the collaborative has been reaching out to the medical community to try and educate providers about medetomidine and how it can complicate already difficult medical issues like overdose. But problems persist despite their efforts.
“We're still seeing patients that are going into the emergency room, and they're leaving AMA (against medical advice) because their withdrawals are not being treated properly.”
She said sometimes providers think patients are just trying to get medications. But other times the patients simply can’t explain what’s happening to them properly because the withdrawals are so intense that it’s difficult to think, let alone communicate.
“Usually what needs to happen is ICU treatment,” she said. “If those people aren't moved to the ICU, there is a very good chance that they could pass away from those withdrawals.”
Medetomidine has been detected across the state, but it’s most prevalent in Albuquerque, where Charzuk said the majority of their tested samples included high amounts of the tranquilizer.
The Harm Reduction Collaborative offers free drug testing at their headquarters in Albuquerque's International District.
Support for this coverage comes from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
