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 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:
-
AP-237
-
AP-238
-
azaprocin
-
para-methyl-AP-237
-
para-nitroazaprocin
-
2-methyl-AP-237
The drugs to be controlled as class C substances include:
