Preventing the Zombie Drug Apocalypse

Congress took an important step last week in combating the fentanyl epidemic and the country’s emerging xylazine crisis. The DETECT Xylazine and Fentanyl Act authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to better track and halt the flow of these lethal substances ravaging our communities. Lawmakers must not mistake it, however, for a one-and-done solution. The stakes are too high and there is too much yet to accomplish for the fight to stop here. 

Xylazine, also known as “tranq” or “the zombie drug,” has only begun appearing on America’s streets within the last several years and, as such, there is much we still don’t know. What is clear, however, is the danger it poses. It is highly addictive, leaves its users with nasty withdrawal symptoms, and causes ulcers sometimes requiring amputation. Most troubling of all, users often combine it with fentanyl to intensify the effect at a lower cost. Such mixing increases the likelihood of a deadly overdose. 

This issue hits close to home for far too many in my home state of Indiana. Overdose deaths in Indiana doubled between 2018 and 2021, and xylazine’s lethal partner fentanyl played a part in 85 percent of them. Over 100,000 American lives were lost to drug overdoses in 2022 alone, surpassing the total American combat deaths in the Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam Wars combined. Tragically, the arrival of new and more deadly drugs like xylazine will only exacerbate the enormous strain the opioid crisis has already placed on our healthcare system.

Although new, xylazine has spread like wildfire. It has already turned up in 48 states and a recent investigation in New York City found that 90 percent of confiscated fentanyl samples there contained some admixture of the drug. Such rampant growth makes swift and decisive action from our elected officials all the more necessary.

This issue has been on my radar since early 2023. I was among the first members of Congress to speak out on the crisis. We must do more to put a stop to those who are perpetrating this attack on the country.

We must tackle the problem at its root: China. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has found that almost 100 percent of the fentanyl in America originates there. The precursor substances used to make fentanyl are shipped from China to Mexico, where cartels process them and send them across our border. Not only is China refusing to take action to stop this flood of fentanyl; recent reports have revealed that the Chinese government even subsidizes the production of fentanyl chemicals. Just as the Chinese Communist Party has fueled the fentanyl epidemic, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is now enabling the xylazine crisis as well, according to the DEA. That is why I have pressed for investigations into shipments of xylazine from China. And it is why I have introduced the Countering Beijing’s Weaponization of Fentanyl Act, legislation that would declare fentanyl a bioweapon and sanction Chairman Xi and other CCP officials until they bring an end to the flow of fentanyl precursors across the Pacific.

I have called on the DEA to schedule xylazine, a crucial step in tracking and limiting its effects. I have also proposed legislation calling for a mandatory 10-year sentence for fentanyl traffickers. Our outdated laws do not yet reflect the fact that fentanyl can carry the same level of lethality in amounts that are miniscule compared to other drugs. Stemming fentanyl is key to addressing the entire unprecedented crisis that is the opioid epidemic.

A safer, healthier country, free from the dangerous substances from China like xylazine that pour across our border, is within reach. There is no excuse for allowing the citizens of the strongest country on Earth to be so vulnerable to such an attack. Action is needed to address the rapidly developing xylazine problem and it is needed now. Every day Congress and the Biden-Harris administration wait, more lives are lost. Hoosiers and Americans deserve better.