The government is to ban the powerful non-opioid sedative xylazine, along with 21 other substances, it has announced.
A statutory instrument has been laid in Parliament to control the substance as a class C drug, following a recommendation from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) earlier this year. While xylazine is approved for use as a sedative, muscle relaxant and analgesic in veterinary medicine, it is increasingly being used in combination with opioids as a ‘cheap means of stretching out each dose’ the government states. It will continue to be legally available for veterinary prescribing.
Known in the US as ‘tranq’ or ‘tranq dope’, especially when mixed with fentanyl or heroin, xylazine has been associated with dangerous side effects such as large skin ulcers. As it is not an opioid its effects cannot be reversed by naloxone in the case of an overdose, with the years 2018 to 2021 seeing the number of US xylazine-involved overdose deaths increase from just over 100 to almost 3,500. A recent report from King’s College London warned that the substance had now infiltrated the UK’s drug market and was no longer ‘limited to heroin supplies’.
The government press release announcing the ban – headlined ‘Britain takes decisive action to ban “zombie drug” xylazine’ – has come in for criticism, however. ‘While aimed at addressing public health concerns, [the decision] has been accompanied by deeply troubling rhetoric, labelling the substance as a “zombie drug,”’ said advocacy organisation VolteFace. ‘This kind of stigmatising language is a significant departure from responsible policymaking and is more typical of sensationalist media coverage than official government communications.’
Among the other drugs covered by the forthcoming legislation are variations of nitazenes, while the statutory instrument will also introduce a new generic definition of nitazenes to stop drug gangs from ‘attempting to use minor adjustments to their synthetic compound’ to get around the law, the government states. The changes are expected to come into force either later this year or in early 2025.
In addition to xylazine, the following drugs will be classified as class C substances: bentazepam, bretazenil, 4’-chloro-deschloroalprazolam, clobromazolam, cloniprazepam, desalkylgidazepam, deschloroclotizolam, difludiazepam, nflubrotizolam, fluclotizolam, fluetizolam, gidazepam, methylclonazepam, rilmazafone, nthionordazepam. Six substances will also become class A substances: AP-237, AP-238, azaprocin, para-methyl-AP-237, para-nitroazaprocin, 2-methyl-AP-237.
‘We have seen what has happened in other countries when the use of these drugs is allowed to grow out of control, and this is why we are among the first countries to take action and protect our communities from these dangerous new drugs,’ said policing minister Dame Diana Johnson. ‘The criminals who produce, distribute and profit from these drugs will therefore face the full force of the law, and the changes being introduced this week will also make it easier to crack down on those suppliers who are trying to circumvent our controls.’