Tranq, which is used as a cheap cutting agent in drugs like cocaine, heroin and fentanyl, has been responsible for more than 3,000 overdose deaths since 2021.
New legislation introduced by Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., and Vince Fong, R-Calif., takes aim at the drug, formally known as xylazine.
The Strengthening Tracking of Poisonous Tranq Requiring Analyzed National Quantification (STOP TRANQ) Act would require the State Department to include county-by-county reporting of xylazine in its annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, which tracks federal efforts to counter international drug trafficking.
The DEA reported that approximately 23 percent of fentanyl powder and 7 percent of fentanyl pills seized in 2022 contained xylazine.
Its prevalence is particularly a problem because xylazine is not an opioid, meaning that reversal medications like naloxone, or Narcan, cannot reverse its effects — making fentanyl-mixed xylazine even more deadly.
In 2023, the Biden administration designated fentanyl-mixed xylazine as an “emerging threat.”
The State Department’s INCSR currently tracks illicit drugs like fentanyl, cocaine, and heroin, as well as the illicit trafficking of common pharmaceuticals like pseudoepinephrine, or Sudafed, but the report omits xylazine and classifies the substance as a “drug cutting agent.”
Requiring the State Department to actively report on this emerging threat would help the United States better counter and respond to trends contributing to America’s drug crisis, understand the role of foreign entities in manufacturing and trafficking illicit tranq, and hold bad actors accountable.
“Tranq is killing Virginians in our communities and Americans across our country. But right now, our country is ill-equipped to counter the influx of xylazine and fentanyl in our communities,” Spanberger said. “As a former federal agent and CIA case officer who worked narcotics cases and tracked cartels, I believe that Congress must provide our federal, state, and local law enforcement officers with every tool available to combat the deadly drugs flowing into our communities. As drug overdose deaths are increasingly involving xylazine, this bipartisan legislation would help law enforcement crack down on its proliferation in our communities and stop the predators who are killing our neighbors.”
“Tranq is a growing drug threat to all Americans and must be taken seriously as a deadly drug coming into our country,” Fong said. “There are drugs on the streets that are killing people in our local communities especially fentanyl and the growing rise of xylazine, and we should know the trafficking patterns from other countries so that we can stop the flow of these drugs from further harming Americans. It is critical that we combat this lethal drug crisis head on and support our law enforcement and prosecutors in going after those who wish us harm.”
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Chris Graham
