"UK bans ’zombie drug’ found in vapes after 11 deaths from flesh-eating substance
The drug, which is strong enough to knock out an elephant, has also been linked to 11 deaths here since 2022.
A zombie drug found in vapes has been banned by the UK after 11 Brits were killed by the "flesh-eating substance".
Xylazine, also known as ’tranq’, turns users lifeless and often results in limb amputations, skin ulcerations, and rotting.
The drug, which is strong enough to knock out an elephant, has also been linked to 11 deaths here since 2022.
Diana Johnson, the policing minister, said: "One of this new Government’s central missions is to make our streets safer.
"We will not accept the use of substances that put lives at risk and allow drug gangs to profit from exploiting vulnerable people.
"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.
"The criminals who produce, distribute and profit from these drugs will therefore face the full force of the law.
"The changes being introduced will also make it easier to crack down on those suppliers who are trying to circumvent our controls."
Xylazine has already taken over some areas in the US where cities like New York and Philadelphia have turned into so-called “zombielands”.
The Home Office has now banned xylazine and 21 other substances as part of a Labour Government crackdown to prevent more fatalities.
Xylazine has been detected in laced vapes which some drug users take for cannabis.
Karl Warburton, 43, was found dead at his home in Solihull in May 2023 after using a cocktail of drugs, including tranq.
The father-of-two became the first known person to die in the UK after taking the zombie drug.
Karl’s death certificate listed xylazine as contributing to, but not directly causing his passing.
The illicit drug is set to be labelled as a Class C drug, while the other 21 substances will be categorized as Class A.
Under the 1971 the Misuse of Drugs Act, Class A is the most serious.
This includes substances like cocaine, crack, ecstasy, MDMA and heroin.
Meanwhile codeine, ketamine and cannabis are fall into Class B.
The third and final category, Class C, feature GHB, anabolic steroids, and nitrous oxide.
Under the current drug laws, those in possession of Class A drugs face up to seven years in prison, an unlimited fine or both.
Anyone caught supplying or producing can face be jailed for life, an unlimited fine or both.
People caught in possession of Class B face up to five years in prison, while anyone found carrying Class Cs can be jailed for two years.
Xylazine-involved overdose deaths in the US rose from 102 to 3,468 in the space of just 3 years between 2018 and 2021, and its effects on long-term users – often leaving them immobilised in the street, and prone to non-healing skin lesions – have led to its characterisation as the "zombie drug".
In April 2023, the White House designated xylazine combined with fentanyl as an "emerging drug threat", which has enabled the implementation of an action plan at the federal level to tackle the threat, and which often precedes scheduling a drug as a controlled substance.
Some individual US states, including Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, have already implemented their own bans.
It comes as the UK also became a global leader in the introduction of trained Border Force dogs deployed to stop nitazenes and fentanyl being smuggled in internationally.
Since summer 2023 there have been more restrictions on synthetic opioid nitazene too, linked to a rise in deaths.
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