Legislation has been laid in Parliament to ban xylazine and 21 other dangerous drugs as part of the government's action to prevent drug deaths and crack down on drug dealing gangs.
Xylazine, often known as 'tranq', is a high-strength veterinary sedative, which has increasingly been used in combination with opioids such as heroin as a cheap means of stretching out each dose. It has also been found in cannabis vapes.
Xylazine-involved overdose deaths in the United States rose from 102 to 3,468 in the space of just 3 years between 2018 and 2021, and its effects on long-term users - often leaving them immobilised in the street, and prone to non-healing skin lesions - have led to its characterisation as the 'zombie drug'.
Following a recommendation from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), a statutory instrument has been laid in Parliament this week to control xylazine as a class C drug - a step that has not yet been taken in the United States, Canada, Mexico or other countries in the world affected by xylazine abuse.
Xylazine is one of 22 harmful substances that will be banned under the new legislation, 6 of which will be controlled as class A drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. Anyone caught producing or supplying these class A drugs could face up to life in prison, an unlimited fine, or both.
Among the drugs covered by the legislation are new variations of nitazenes, highly addictive synthetic opioids, which can be hundreds of times more potent than heroin and therefore carry an increased risk of accidental overdose.
The statutory instrument will also introduce into law a new generic definition of nitazenes, which will prevent drug gangs from attempting to use minor adjustments to their synthetic compound to try and bypass UK drug laws. The changes are expected to come into force later this year or in early 2025, depending on the parliamentary process.
Policing Minister Dame Diana Johnson said:
One of this new government's central missions is to make our streets safer, and we will not accept the use of substances that put lives at risk and allow drug gangs to profit from exploiting vulnerable people.
We have seen what has happened in other countries when the use of these drugs is allowed to grow out of control, and this is why we are among the first countries to take action and protect our communities from these dangerous new drugs.
The criminals who produce, distribute and profit from these drugs will therefore face the full force of the law, and the changes being introduced this week will also make it easier to crack down on those suppliers who are trying to circumvent our controls.
As well as the 6 substances to be controlled as class A drugs, 16 will also be controlled as class C drugs. If caught producing or supplying class C drugs, potential consequences include an unlimited fine, a prison sentence of up to 14 years, or both.
In April 2023, the White House designated xylazine combined with fentanyl as an 'emerging drug threat', which has enabled the implementation of an action plan at the federal level to tackle the threat, and which often precedes scheduling a drug as a controlled substance. Some individual US states, including Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, have already implemented their own bans.
Xylazine will remain available for veterinary prescribing. However, it will be only available if lawfully prescribed and it will be an offence to possess or supply it except in accordance with a lawful prescription or under a Home Office controlled drugs licence.
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs provides official guidance on the use of xylazine as a veterinary medicine.
The drugs to be controlled as class A substances include:
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AP-237
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AP-238
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azaprocin
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para-methyl-AP-237
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para-nitroazaprocin
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2-methyl-AP-237
The drugs to be controlled as class C substances include:
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xylazine
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bentazepam
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bretazenil
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4'-chloro-deschloroalprazolam
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clobromazolam
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cloniprazepam
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desalkylgidazepam
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deschloroclotizolam
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difludiazepam
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flubrotizolam
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fluclotizolam
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fluetizolam
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gidazepam
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methylclonazepam
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rilmazafone
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thionordazepam
