According to The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction’s (EMCDDA) latest annual drug report, published last June, xylazine turned up in 13 percent of syringes collected in Riga, while Estonian police began seizing the drug in 2022.
The EMCDDA has identified xylazine and new synthetic opioids as future threats. New opioids are highly potent and only small amounts of the drug are needed to produce large numbers of doses, putting users at risk of life-threatening poisoning, the drug report said.
Caroline Copeland, who authored the study, says policymakers need to take steps now to prevent xylazine from killing people in Europe. She wants to see cheap test strips made available, while healthcare providers should be aware that chronic skin ulcers are a sign of intravenous xylazine use.
Her co-author, Adam Holland of the University of Bristol, said the growing threat from xylazine reinforced the need to look again at punitive drug laws.
“We need to expand the range of harm reduction interventions available for people who use drugs, including drug checking and overdose prevention centers, to give them the opportunities they need to stay safe,” Holland said in a press release.