- Nacada led a multi-agency team to the Coast after videos of young men looking drowsy, sedated and confused.
- During the mission, 20 samples in various forms were collected in three counties of the Coast region.
The National Authority for the Campaign against Alcohol and Drug Abuse has raised concern that some users are injecting animal tranquillizers as an alternative to heroin.
Nacada in a statement on Friday said in their two-week fact-finding mission to the Coast region, it was discovered that other drug users were injecting with animal tranquilizers to enhance and prolong heroin potency.
Nacada led a multi-agency team to the Coast after videos of young men looking drowsy, sedated and confused and barely able to maintain an upright posture emerged on social media last month.
During the mission, 20 samples in various forms were collected in three counties of the Coast region and handed over to the Government Chemist for analysis and identification.
It was established that users were injecting with a combination of heroin and Xylazine, which is a veterinary animal tranquillizer.
“This discovery of Xylazine presents a potential public health crisis in the management of drug overdose cases because the life-saving drug Naloxone does not respond to its overdose,” Nacada acting CEO John Muteti said.
“The scientific evidence from our mission evidently shows that with the emerging evidence of non-medical use of veterinary drugs, there is an urgent need to institute measures to regulate and control the diversion of such drugs into the illegal market.”
This, he said, should include a strong consideration for scheduling Xylazine and other veterinary drugs prone to abuse to avert such instances.
He further said the authority will engage other government agencies and stakeholders in the veterinary sector to come up with mitigation measures against the new development in drug use in the country.