LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Deaths involving xylazine, a sedative known as “tranq” or “zombie drug,” nearly quadrupled from 2023 to 2024, data from the Clark County coroner’s office shows.
The drug, originally manufactured as a tranquilizer for horses and cattle, wasn’t a big problem on Las Vegas streets in early 2023, when news about xylazine spread to western states. The Yuma County (Arizona) Sheriff’s Office released information that NARCAN (Naloxone) was ineffective in treating xylazine overdoses, but the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said at the time that the drug wasn’t prevalent here. Western U.S. states weren’t seeing use escalate the way it had in the East, particularly around Philadelphia.
Now xylazine has become more common in combination with fentanyl and methamphetamine, and it has shown up in toxicology reports at the coroner’s office.
In 2024, xylazine showed up in 23 deaths analyzed by the coroner’s office. The bulk of the cases involved accidental deaths involving either a combination of fentanyl and xylazine or a combination of methamphetamine and xylazine. Other drugs — including cocaine, hydrocodone, Diazepam and Alprazolam — were present in eight of the cases…