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‘Tranq’ Turns More Illicit Drug Users Into Amputees. Deadly overdoses have dropped, but millions of people are using drugs that leave them seriously disabled
Wall Street Journal ^ | June 9, 2024 | Julie Wernau

Posted on 06/09/2024 7:11:41 AM PDT by karpov

PHILADELPHIA—As a boy, Nathan Clark developed a fear that he would lose his limbs and be unable to fish and crab with his grandfather.

Today, Clark is a triple amputee. He lost his limbs after using fentanyl and xylazine, an animal tranquilizer also known as “tranq” that rots flesh and bone. Less than five years after xylazine showed up in his dope bag, the 29-year-old can’t bathe or use the toilet on his own.

“When they cut my legs off, the bone was black,” Clark said.

The rise of xylazine in the illicit drug supply is creating a generation of permanently disabled amputees. Hospitals in Philadelphia, a hot spot for xylazine contamination, are overwhelmed with patients who require costly and complicated care. Three-quarters of residents at Beacon House, an emergency shelter in the city’s Kensington neighborhood, have crippling wounds or amputations resulting from xylazine wounds that doctors don’t fully understand.

Their disfigurement is an extreme manifestation of the suffering illicit drugs are visiting on chronic users. For more of them, recovering from addiction means living with permanent disabilities. The worst cases are the growing number of people with maimed or amputated limbs.

Xylazine is spreading as dealers purchase it from China and Puerto Rico to mix into fentanyl and other drugs. Xylazine was detected in about 40% of urine samples from Pennsylvania that contained fentanyl in the year through April, according to drug-testing company Millennium Health. In New England, Xylazine’s presence doubled to 28% of samples in April from six months earlier.

Beacon House is housing dozens of people disabled by xylazine among its 69 residents. The building keeps 15 walkers for people too compromised to navigate the building on their own.

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; US: Pennsylvania
KEYWORDS: philadelphia; tranq; xylazine
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To: karpov

all the open border “Diversity” worshipping neoCONS, even those right here on FR, are just as responsible for these drug deaths and disfigurements as the leftists are.


41 posted on 06/09/2024 11:06:52 AM PDT by imabadboy99
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To: metmom; NobleFree

“Tongue in cheek.

It’s the OBVIOUS answer.

Don’t do drugs and your risk from those kind of drugs drops to virtually zero (which recognizes the threat from poisoning attempts and accidental exposure and some wet blanket FReeper is sure to point that out)”

Not everybody is on your side...


42 posted on 06/09/2024 11:14:58 AM PDT by Does so ( 🇺🇦....We are in the later stages of a Communist takeover...)
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To: Codeflier
I guessed as much. My stepmother yelled at the Hospice worker for giving an alcoholic morphine. She was concerned he would OD on it because he was still drinking. The Hospice worker told her to be quiet. It was his decision, and if she took the morphine away, he would be removed from the house.

My mother (cancer), on the other hand, remained lucid until about an hour before she died. She had beat alcoholism and refused morphine. She had pain medicine; my guess was a stronger Tylenol with codeine. She drove herself to church two weeks before she died. So I know she was not using painkillers until after that. I believe she refused morphine because she wanted to interact with her family and God until the last possible moment.

43 posted on 06/09/2024 11:49:35 AM PDT by OldGoatCPO (No Caitiff Choir of Angels will sing for me. )
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To: karpov

illicit street drugs are bad, m’kay ...


44 posted on 06/09/2024 12:09:25 PM PDT by catnipman ((A Vote For The Lesser Of Two Evils Still Counts As A Vote For Evil))
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To: karpov

“Xylazine is spreading as dealers purchase it from China and Puerto Rico”

and no doubt easily smuggled into the U.S. via Biden’s open southern border ... WSJ didn’t happen to mention that little factoid ...


45 posted on 06/09/2024 12:14:23 PM PDT by catnipman ((A Vote For The Lesser Of Two Evils Still Counts As A Vote For Evil))
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To: KarlInOhio

“I’m trying to figure out the veterinary market for a sedative that rots the legs off of pet dogs and cats, “

same thought here ... cats in particular are extremely sensitive to the majority of substances that humans can easily metabolize; cat livers can metabolize very few substances that aren’t meat-derived, because as obligate carnivores, cats never developed the complex livers that can metabolize the vast array of substances that are not meat-derived ...


46 posted on 06/09/2024 12:20:09 PM PDT by catnipman ((A Vote For The Lesser Of Two Evils Still Counts As A Vote For Evil))
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To: karpov

Why is it that our government works harder to stop the use of ivermectin than xylazine?


47 posted on 06/09/2024 12:22:48 PM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: Fiji Hill

Why in hell do so many people voluntarily consume this stuff when they know what it does to you?

I would never in a million years touch this xylanine stuff, but looking at the world we live in today I do understand why some are looking for a temporary escape with other drugs. Being sober means facing the fact that the world is ruled by corrupt elites, many of whom cannot be removed by elections, and even something as basic as biological sex and the sanctity of unborn life can no longer be taken for granted.

48 posted on 06/09/2024 12:23:18 PM PDT by FormerFRLurker ("Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities"-Voltaire)
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To: allendale

It was a Deep State/intel operation driven through culture over the past 80 years. While boosting their illicit drug market, they also brought down the character of the country.


49 posted on 06/09/2024 12:36:50 PM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: Does so
Not everybody is on your side...

I'm used to that.

50 posted on 06/09/2024 12:40:51 PM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus…)
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To: DuncanWaring
Why is it that our government works harder to stop the use of ivermectin than xylazine?

Because they are not *for the people*.

They do that for any drug that can help people as opposed to drugs that create dependent addicts or just outright kill or main people (Remdesivir).

51 posted on 06/09/2024 12:43:07 PM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus…)
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To: ClearCase_guy

I agree. Free and abundant pure drugs in a city built for drug users. Let them self destruct away from everyone else.


52 posted on 06/09/2024 1:15:23 PM PDT by wgmalabama (Censored!)
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To: HYPOCRACY

They don’t treat chronic pain anymore. People in chronic pain have 3 choices. Deal with it, street drugs or self removal. What great choices.


53 posted on 06/09/2024 1:18:25 PM PDT by wgmalabama (Censored!)
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To: karpov

I think I’ll pass on that stuff.


54 posted on 06/09/2024 1:29:22 PM PDT by gitmo
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To: KarlInOhio
I'm trying to figure out the veterinary market for a sedative that rots the legs off of pet dogs and cats, unless humans are particularly susceptible or the side effect is from impure varieties whipped up in Mexican warehouses.

Or they take far, far too much of it and that's what causes rotting limbs.

55 posted on 06/09/2024 2:25:47 PM PDT by Lizavetta
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