LaSalle County Coroner Rich Ploch says street drugs are getting more dangerous as people mix more dangerous things with the opioids they sell. He says the county has had five overdose deaths linked to Xylazine in about the last two years. That’s a veterinary drug used to tranquilize large animals. It suppresses a person’s breathing.
Since Xylazine isn’t an opioid, anti-opioid medicine such as Naloxone, doesn’t work on it, even though it’s mixed with opioids. Ploch says Xylazine has been mixed locally with heroin, fentanyl, and cocaine.