Plato was right. We need to get out of the Cave and have some fun in the real world by David Barrows

 

Daily Express, Feb 16, 2023 

A new horror drug '50 times stronger than heroin is rotting people's flesh. 

A powerful new drug that rots human flesh is compounding America's opioid crisis, public health officials have warned. Known on the streets as "Tranq Dope", the drug is a mix of fentanyl - a synthetic opioid that's shattering young lives across the country - and xylazine, an animal sedative that is making its way into the illicit drug supply. Xylazine has hit Philadelphia particularly hard - about one-third of all fatal opioid overdoses in 2019 were related to the drug. 

But the drug was also involved in fatal overdoses in 23 states in 2019, with the highest rate — 67 percent — happening in the Northeast, a CDC report published in 2021 found. 

Dealers are using xylazine, which is uncontrolled by the federal government and cheap, to cut fentanyl, which is up to 50 times stronger than heroin. 

In addition to enhancing the high from fentanyl, it literally rots people’s skin. 

Raw wounds erupt into a scaly crust of dead tissue called eschar which, if untreated, can lead to amputation. 

Health officials are also struggling to treat users because, as xylazine is a sedative and not an opioid, it resists standard opioid overdose reversal treatments.