{"id":1916736,"date":"2023-04-19T13:12:11","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T17:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tranq-crisis-shows-how-harm-reduction-drug-policies-eat-americans-alive\/"},"modified":"2023-04-19T13:15:16","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T17:15:16","slug":"tranq-crisis-shows-how-harm-reduction-drug-policies-eat-americans-alive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tranq-crisis-shows-how-harm-reduction-drug-policies-eat-americans-alive\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Tranq\u2019 Crisis Shows How Harm-Reduction Drug Policies Eat Americans Alive"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftranq-crisis-shows-how-harm-reduction-drug-policies-eat-americans-alive%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1916736&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>The White House on April 12 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/ondcp\/briefing-room\/2023\/04\/12\/biden-harris-administration-designates-fentanyl-combined-with-xylazine-as-an-emerging-threat-to-the-united-states\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">declared xylazine-laced fentanyl an \u201cemerging threat.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0Xylazine, also known as \u201ctranq,\u201d is a horse tranquilizer that is being found in combination with fentanyl across the United States.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The New York Times brought national attention to the new drug in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/01\/07\/health\/fentanyl-xylazine-drug.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">an article from January 2023<\/a> that chronicled its spread on the East Coast. This week, Fix Homelessness <a href=\"https:\/\/fixhomelessness.org\/2023\/horse-tranquilizer-tranq-appears-in-fentanyl-in-seattle\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">covered its appearance<\/a> in Seattle.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1216479841\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div  class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-bdfccc37e7633bf1be1868fe86d51a56 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-bdfccc37e7633bf1be1868fe86d51a56\"><\/div>\n<p>Untested in humans, xylazine is a non-opiate sedative that forms a potentially lethal cocktail when combined with the already deadly opioid fentanyl.\u00a0Notably, xylazine does not respond to naloxone, known by the brand name Narcan, which is used to reverse fentanyl overdoses.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Xylazine-laced fentanyl can cause open wounds to form on the body. Wounds can become so severely infected that amputation is necessary. The flesh-eating effect of xylazine has caused some to describe its victims as reminiscent of \u201cWalking Dead\u201d zombies.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In recent years, drug policy in major cities has shifted away from mandatory treatment and toward decriminalization and harm reduction.\u00a0New York City operates two \u201csafe injection sites,\u201d illegal under federal law, where medical professionals give clean needles to drug users, test street drugs for substances like xylazine, and observe users to prevent overdose.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The city\u2019s stance on addiction is rooted in a \u201charm reduction\u201d ideology favored by increasing numbers of politicians, public health officials, and voters. The sentiment behind harm reduction is that only drug users can decide whether they should receive treatment. The best anyone else can do is help them use \u201csafely.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<div  class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-2218392177d78ff37dbefabd36e1eddb fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-2218392177d78ff37dbefabd36e1eddb\"><\/div>\n<p>Harm reduction ideology rejects the long-held view that addiction, by its very nature, prevents addicts from choosing treatment for themselves, even if they hate what the drugs do to their bodies and their lives.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The alternative philosophy, a pro-treatment approach, holds that intervening on behalf of addicts is not paternalistic or stigmatizing. The pro-treatment approach sees humans as worthy of a full and flourishing life.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The same philosophy undergirds the view that society must intervene to protect the lives of suicidal or anorexic people. And it should inspire intervention for the lives of those suffering from addiction.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Drug policy involves personal, moral, and societal issues, which force humans to ask questions about choice, responsibility, and ultimate human good.\u00a0This means the ideological stakes are high. And when the stakes are high, the noise gets loud. <\/p>\n<div  class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-f5db0daf162476647912e68d7e486991 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-f5db0daf162476647912e68d7e486991\"><\/div>\n<p>The noise will not abate anytime soon, but if one thing could tug at the roots of deeply held views, it is something so awful that we are forced to rethink even our strongest convictions. Something like tranq.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The New York Times article quoted a woman calling her use of xylazine \u201cself-destruction at its finest,\u201d and it described an amputee injecting it into the stump of his leg.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/01\/07\/health\/fentanyl-xylazine-drug.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Look at the photos<\/a> of people marred by tranq and imagine a society that prizes the pseudo-autonomy of choosing deadly drugs above compassionate intervention.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Contrary to what harm-reduction ideology would have you believe, recognizing a person\u2019s humanity <em>is<\/em> consistent with intervening to get him addiction treatment.\u00a0The cultural pull not to stigmatize anything or anyone is misplaced, purchasing a momentary fa\u00e7ade of autonomy at the cost of untold harm and suffering.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Fentanyl, which has surged to <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2023\/01\/23\/seattle-morgue-running-out-of-room-for-fatal-fentanyl-vics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">tragic levels of fatality<\/a>, has been viewed with the kind of justified alarm that xylazine is getting today. Seattle\u2019s fentanyl overdose deaths have skyrocketed nearly <a href=\"https:\/\/kingcounty.gov\/depts\/health\/overdose-prevention\/data.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">700 percent in the last four years<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>But harm-reduction proponents, who once pushed for fentanyl test strips to keep people away from the drug entirely, now favor Narcan to rescue an ever-growing number of people from fentanyl overdoses.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>We cannot go down the same path again. As more people slip into the clutches of xylazine, let us not try to convince ourselves that they must choose to help themselves before anyone else can offer assistance or that a xylazine addiction causes anything but destruction.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In practice, harm reduction often ends up stabilizing the victims of addiction\u2019s warfare without achieving a ceasefire. Clean needles and supervision may save lives, but saving lives only to let them return to the deadly risks of addiction is not enough. Precautions that reduce harm can be one of the life-valuing means to the best end \u2014 recovery \u2014 but they cannot be the best end in themselves.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The graphic sight of tranq eating away at human flesh should be enough to motivate a stop-at-nothing response to the spread and use of the drug, but that approach should not end with xylazine. Other deadly and addictive substances warrant the same response. <\/p>\n<p>The less visible, but no less real, destruction caused by fentanyl and meth eases capitulation to the \u201cwho am I to judge?\u201d narrative \u2014 a narrative that says the public should allow addiction to slowly kill people in droves rather than risk being criticized as judgmental.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The drug crisis facing our cities and our nation finds itself immersed in rhetoric. It makes sense. Addiction is fundamentally an issue of human dignity, invoking judgments about what constitutes a meaningful existence or a good life, and whether such distinctions exist in the first place. Issues like that are bound to be fraught with tension.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The gruesome tranq tragedy will hopefully be enough to knock us out of our ideological stupor and force a re-examination of harm-reduction drug policy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<div  class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-6e1c1f1198eb789f2946a0e274de9d81 fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-6e1c1f1198eb789f2946a0e274de9d81\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">   Caitlyn Axe is part of Discovery Institute\u2019s Center on Wealth and Poverty in Seattle. She is a recent graduate of the University of Washington where she studied biochemistry and ethics.<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-tags bdr-top-black mt-30 mt-sm-60 pt-15 pt-md-45\">\n<ul class=\"list-unstyled d-flex flex-wrap align-items-center mb-0 mx-n10 p-0\">\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/fentanyl\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">fentanyl<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/fix-homelessness\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Fix Homelessness<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/harm-reduction\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">harm reduction<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/naloxone\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">naloxone<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/narcan\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Narcan<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/new-york-city\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">New York City<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/new-york-times\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">New York Times<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/opioid\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">opioid<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/seattle\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Seattle<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/sedative\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">sedative<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/tranq\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">tranq<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/treatment\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">treatment<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/white-house\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">White House<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/xylazine\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">xylazine<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The White House on April 12 declared xylazine-laced fentanyl an \u201cemerging threat.\u201d\u00a0Xylazine, also known as \u201ctranq,\u201d is a horse tranquilizer that is being found in combination with fentanyl across the United States.\u00a0\u00a0 The New York Times brought national attention to the new drug in an article from January 2023 that chronicled its spread on the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1709,"featured_media":1916737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[14018,3884,6170,5642,14028,24683,4600,23687],"class_list":["post-1916736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-alive","tag-americans","tag-crisis","tag-drug","tag-eat","tag-harm-reduction","tag-policies","tag-tranq"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1709"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1916736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1916737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1916736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1916736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1916736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}