New, deadlier drugs mean there’s never been a better time to detox
And Springfield Wellness Center can help you do it
When synthetic fentanyl hit the streets of the US in the 1980s, law enforcement and healthcare officials sounded the alarm because the synthetic opioid was so much more powerfully addictive—and therefore lethal—than anything the treatment community had seen before. Fentanyl is 10 times more powerful than morphine, and when combined with heroin, the drug becomes even more devastating. The drug’s rapid potency induces such a powerful euphoria that users can forget to breathe. Emergency room physicians report patients unconscious with the needle still in their arm.
In recent years, however, newer, even deadlier variants of narcotics have been introduced—often cut surreptitiously into other drugs, so that users don’t even know the danger they are in.
One of these new arrivals is isotonitazene, also known as “ISO,” a synthetic opioid first developed by pharmaceutical companies in the 1950s to treat pain. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, “this dangerous drug has moved into the Southern states and, more recently, along the Eastern seaboard. Much more potent than heroin and morphine (similar to fentanyl), ISO is being mixed into and marketed as other drugs to make drugs more potent and cheaper to produce. This drug can and has caused deadly overdoses in unsuspecting victims.”
In 2020, the Drug Enforcement Administration issued a temporary order making ISO a Schedule I drug under the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA). Schedule I drugs have the highest potential for abuse, a high risk of dependence, and have no currently accepted medical use in the United States. (Heroin, and two other drugs chemically similar to ISO known as etonitazene and clonitazene, are also classified as Schedule I substances.)
One of the dangers of ISO is the speed with which withdrawal symptoms begin. A patient we treated for ISO addiction at Springfield Wellness Center had to drive from the Midwest, rather than fly, because he didn’t think he could last the duration of a flight without needing to re-inject.
Another new street drug arrival with even more grisly side effects is xylazine, also known as “Tranq.” Used by veterinarians as a sedative and pain reliever in large animals, xylazine is now being cut into heroin and fentanyl, with deadly consequences. Xylazine’s life-threatening side effects are similar to the ones typically observed with opioid use, making it difficult to distinguish between the two. However, because the drug is not an opioid, the overdose-reversal treatment naloxone is not effective in cases involving xylazine.
Even without overdosing, xylazine’s side effects can be horrific. The drug is also called the “flesh rotting” or “Zombie” drug because it causes skin and bone to deteriorate. The wounds are not confined to the area of injection, but appear randomly throughout the body. Painful and disfiguring, the lesions may become so severe they require amputation of the infected extremity.
In March, the DEA issued an alert about the “sharp increase in the trafficking of fentanyl mixed with xylazine,” reporting seizures of fentanyl and xylazine mixtures in 48 of 50 states. In New York City, health department and drug intervention officials report a sharp increase in xylazine concentrations. “Four or five months ago, we were seeing just trace amounts,” one told The Guardian. But now, “we’re starting to see batches that are considerably higher—upward of 25% concentration xylazine in the bags.”
As with fentanyl, many users of substances such as heroin and cocaine do not realize that it may be cut with Tranq.
These new and even deadlier forms of narcotics mean that there has never been a better time to quit.
Springfield Wellness Center can help you do it. We have successfully detoxed patients from fentanyl and ISO. As our medical director, Dr. Richard F. Mestayer, said recently, “We can handle Tranq detox. We’ve had success detoxing a wide variety of substances using intravenous NAD. I suspect NAD’s antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and mitochondrial support functions all play a role in this success.”
Dr. Tyson Olds, our attending physician, confirmed. “Because tranq has a very rapid elimination half-life in the body—around 30 minutes—it is still the opioid addiction to fentanyl or heroin that we are likely to be treating. Any patient with extensive tissue necrosis would be referred to a hospital following detox for wound care management services.”
We know that many people are afraid of the detox process—and, indeed, we don’t recommend that anyone attempt to detox from opioids “cold turkey” and alone. But we also know from 20 years of experience helping people just like you that intravenous NAD and our caring staff can get you through it. We’ll ease you through any discomfort and, in 10 short days, have you feeling better than you ever thought possible. That’s because replenishing NAD+ levels intravenously decreases withdrawal symptoms, helps to restore and revitalize damaged cells, improves mental clarity, promotes better sleep patterns, and gives you your life back.
Don’t let opioid addiction permanently sabotage your health and relationships. Don’t live another day fearing overdose. Call today and let us help you on your journey to recovery.
Working together we can beat addiction.