California Bill Tackles New Threat From Horse Tranquilizer Mixed With Fentanyl

The emergence of xylazine, a drug commonly used to tranquilize horses, as a deadly additive to fentanyl has prompted California lawmakers to take action. Assembly Bill 3029 would add xylazine to the list of controlled substances in the state, contingent upon action by Congress, making it a Schedule III drug and requiring coroners and medical examiners to test for it in suspected overdoses. Currently routine toxicology tests don’t detect the drug, according to an April 2 press release from the bill’s author, Assemblywoman Dr. Jasmeet Bains, a Democrat from the Kern County city of Delano. “Given the need to maintain the availability of xylazine as a veterinary medication, we need to have our regulatory framework and criminal code reflect the reality of what we see when people come in for treatment or, worse, are found dead from an overdose,” said Bains in the release....