VIDEO: L.A. Officials Warn of ‘Zombie Drug’ Eating Addicts’ Flesh

Authorities in Los Angeles are warning residents about the spreading “zombie drug” that eats the flesh of users.

The street drug called “tranq” that is actually an animal tranquilizer named xylazine has gruesome side effects when mixed with illegal drugs that include fentanyl, the New York Post reported Monday, adding officials are working to track it.

Addicts who use it can reportedly experience side effects such as their skin and muscle rotting.

United States government officials recently dubbed xylazine an “emerging threat” and urged Congress to fund the battle against the drug connected to rising overdose deaths, AFP reported:

According to DEA figures, overdose deaths linked to xylazine increased by 1,127 percent in the south of the country from 2020 to 2021 — from 116 to 1,423 — and were substantially higher in other regions too.

Meanwhile, Drug Enforcement Administration special agent Bill Bodner said of the drug, “It’s much more likely to stop someone from breathing and the things that come along with xylazine, it’s a vasoconstrictor. So when you’re injecting it, it’s actually reducing the blood circulation.”

Authorities with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Office created a program to monitor how common the drug is and crime lab analysts note when preliminary signs of the substance were found in drugs officials seized, the Post article said.

DEA L.A. Field Division spokesperson Nicole Nishida said that “While the numbers are relatively low in our community compared to elsewhere in the United States, the presence of xylazine is now becoming more frequent and the trend is concerning.”

In February, PIX 11 reported on the effects xylazine had on people in Philadelphia. Video footage shows individuals on the street standing or sitting hunched over, barely moving:

“You’d see people kinda like, walking around looking like animals when their knuckles are touching the ground,” one man told the outlet.

Xylazine can be found in 90 percent of the city’s fentanyl and heroin supply, according to the report.

“Next thing you know, you wake up with these big holes all over you, these sores in your legs and wherever. They just pop out of anywhere,” a woman explained.

Meanwhile, a husband and wife are working to care for those affected by “tranq” in Philadelphia’s Kensington area:

The drug has reportedly been connected to dozens of deaths in New York. In 2022, four drug overdoses in San Francisco were linked to xylazine, according to Breitbart News.