New warning in Oakland County for 'Tranq' mixing fentanyl with animal tranquilizer

FOX 2 (WJBK) - The Oakland County Sheriff's Office crime lab is seeing a spike in fentanyl laced with animal tranquilizer xylazine, commonly referred to Tranq on the streets.

"It's taking our opioid epidemic and compounding it," said Michigan Rep. Kelly Breen (D-Novi). "I'm sorry to say my family lost a very dear friend to fentanyl and this is worst."

A dose of Narcan isn't effective in stopping overdoses when this drug, which has a sedentary effect that can last eight hours, is involved.

"It is not approved for human use, used by vets on large animals," Sheriff Mike Bouchard said.

Bouchard said the crime lab sees Tranq in about 80-85% of fentanyl-seized items. It isn't a Schedule 2 narcotic on the federal level, meaning it is easy to access by ordering it and law enforcement is limited in how they can handle it.

Breen is drafting legislation as we speak to get it scheduled at the state level to empower law enforcement to go after the dealers.

"It gives us the ability to stop packages from China, another charge dealers," Bouchard said.

Bouchard says – it has a sedentary effect that can last eight hours, typically in powder or solid form.

"It begins to degrade and disintegrate your skin over time," he said. "Number two, it makes the saving efforts that we come across less and less effective."

The craziest part is that you can literally get it shipped to your house from China - that’s because it’s not a Schedule 2 narcotic on the federal level – tying law enforcement’s hands, on prosecuting.

"I'm sorry to say my family lost a very dear friend to a fentanyl overdose and this is worse," said Breen.

Breen is drafting legislation as we speak to get it scheduled at the state level to empower law enforcement to go after the dealers.

"It gives us the ability to stop packages that are coming from China to have another charge against the dealers of this death," Bouchard said.