Oahu paramedics, EMTs warned after skin-rotting drug additive found at recent overdose scenes

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - First responders at Honolulu EMS are being warned about a powerful horse tranquilizer found at suspected overdose scenes on Oahu.

Xylazine likely contributed to at least one recent death this year.

The two-page memo from the city’s Medical Director Dr. Sean Covant says they have “begun to see overdose cases involving Xylazine in Honolulu.”

The document answers questions about the veterinary medicine that is added to opioids to lengthen and enhance the effects.

Xylazine affects the central nervous system, according to the memo, and causes people to lose consciousness.

The practice of mixing it into other drugs started in Puerto Rico, spread to the East Coast but has since moved west.

Dr. Jim Ireland, Honolulu EMS director, said Xylazine and fentanyl are being mixed — a dangerous trend, especially because Naloxone or Narcan, the antidote for fentanyl and other opioid overdoses, does not work on Xylazine.

“Narcan won’t wake you up,” Ireland said, adding that other life-saving medications on an ambulance would have to be administered instead.

There is another horrible side effect of taking the veterinary drug: Users often have large, deep-skin wounds that can lead to amputation if it’s not treated quickly.

Dr. Christina Wang and her team with the Mobile Medical Unit and the Hawaii Health and Harm Reduction Center have been on the lookout for signs of Xylazine on homeless people they care for.

Wang also tries to educated those on the streets about it.

“It’s scary stuff,” she told one woman in Chinatown.

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