Xylazine test strips are in high demand in Ramsey County as public health officials seek to avert ‘crisis’
The Ramsey County Public Health Department reported Wednesday that progress has been made in the past six months in educating people involved with the emerging dangerous drug known as xylazine. Many of them didn’t know that xylazine would cut the drugs they were planning to take.
5 INVESTIGATES first reported on equine tranquilizers mixed primarily with fentanyl in early 2023.
Test strips were a new resource that became the center of conversation from mid-2023 onwards.
Testing illegal drugs to learn more about their contents is not a new concept, but test strips made specifically to see if a drug has been cut with xylazine are a relatively recent innovation. is.
“You can put a very small amount of a substance in your water and test it with a strip,” said Ryan Rasmussen, a health educator with Ramsey County Public Health’s Opioid Control Initiative. He held it up and demonstrated while talking. A small amount of water and the necessary substances for the result.
Rasmussen, who is in recovery from opioid use and has been sober for about 11 years, was joined by Jennifer Turner, a nurse with the Ramsey County Public Health Department’s correctional health division. She works with people with substance use disorders who are incarcerated.
“Probably every week, I meet someone who uses xylazine,” she says, adding that she often recognizes that the drug was ingested through the horrific, gaping skin wounds that have become synonymous with xylazine. Ta.
“We’re finding scratches after just a few uses,” Turner added. She said she and her fellow nurses recently learned how to treat it “just like you would treat a burn.”
As is often the case with illegal drugs, it is difficult to measure the prevalence of xylazine in the community, but outreach efforts at county correctional facilities have been helpful.
“When it comes to powdered fentanyl, probably 20% of what’s on the street has xylazine in it, and in pill form it’s probably 10%,” Rasmussen estimated. “So if the situation starts to deteriorate further, there will be a crisis.”
Turner said she first learned about the drug “maybe a year ago” after hearing about a crisis in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
This burgeoning trend led five researchers to conduct an investigation in the Kensington area last May. The area, about 20 minutes north of downtown Philadelphia, is considered by many to be ground zero for the explosive use of xylazine in the illegal drug supply.
Experts there reported that people using fentanyl in town were also likely using xylazine.
“Is that going to happen to Minnesota?” Rasmussen wondered, adding, “I think we need to talk about that.”
“If I had to guess, it would be 40%.” teeth Rasmussen asked people he met if they knew the fentanyl they were taking was cleaved with xylazine.
Mr Turner said he was also concerned to learn that a “significant proportion” of patients “don’t know what’s in their medicine”, and that’s the core of the purpose behind the test strips. He said that.
“Just when you think you’re taking one thing, you’re taking other substances that make the effects of fentanyl even worse, increasing your risk of overdose,” she added.
The Ramsey County Public Health Department reported that it has distributed 2,700 xylazine detection test strips from Mobile Clinic 555 since acquiring the first xylazine detection test strips in mid-2023.
Another health educator working at Syringe service program Late last year, he, who rides Clinic No. 555, told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that about 75 percent of the people who come on his shift specifically request xylazine test strips.
“Well, I think it’s a perfect number. I think what he reported to you is normal,” Rasmussen responded.
He also noted that while naloxone nasal spray (commonly known by the brand name Narcan) is not an opioid and therefore not effective in reversing a xylazine overdose, it should still be used because “xylazine is typically combined with fentanyl.” He emphasized that it is strongly recommended.
“We also want to encourage people to call 911 and get EMS in the event of a xylazine overdose. We want them to be dealt with by medical professionals on the scene.”
Rasmussen also provides Narcan training for county employees and the public.
You can watch his demonstration and resource explanation for the Ramsey County Opioid Control Initiative in the video below.
Ramsey County Opioid Control Initiative Resources
