An Alarming Trend: Horse Tranquilizer Causes Multiple Deaths in Hawaii
Hawaii recorded four overdose deaths last year involving XYL, the horse tranquilizer being added to drugs like FYL to lengthen the high.
Four people in Hawaii — three on Oahu, one on Maui — died in 2023 with XYL in their system, according to Gary Yabuta, executive director of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program.
To compare, Hawaii saw no XYL-related deaths in 2020, 2021, and 2022.
The use of the veterinary drug as an additive has become so widespread on the mainland, however, that the DEA Administrator said in public alert in 2022 that “XYL is making the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, FYL, even deadlier.”
One reason: There is no antidote.
Naloxone, the opioid antidote, does not work on XYL.
Meanwhile, Hawaii is also expected to hit a new high for FYL-related deaths in 2023. That’s despite Naloxone being more readily available.
First responders respond to at least one drug overdose call daily in the state.
More often, there are multiple cases each day.
Police body camera videos obtained by Hawaii News Now show HPD and HFD performing CPR and other life saving treatment on multiple patients who overdosed in June in a Waikiki hotel room.
The firefighters and police officers used the nasal version of Naloxone on the patients.
Paramedics and EMTs with Honolulu EMS arrived and then administered the antidote intravenously, which is stronger and works faster.
Three victims survived, but two of them died.
Court records show they thought they had cocaine but it was actually FYL.
Two months earlier, first responders were called to a double overdose at a game room on Kapiolani Boulevard. Body camera videos from that seen also showed the man and woman had snorted what they believed to be cocaine. It was FYL.
EMS again needed to use IV Naloxone when multiple doses of the nasal version wasn’t enough.
“We don’t get to everybody in time,” said Dr. James Ireland, of Honolulu Emergency Services.
“If they’re in a cardiac arrest situation, our team starts CPR, they start advanced life support, but sometimes it’s just too late to bring them back.
There were 48 in 2021. That jumped to 79 in 2022. Of that, 50 were on Oahu. In the first six months of 2023, Oahu reported 32, putting the island on track for another record high.
“If we continue to go on this trend, we should have in the area of over 60 FYL related deaths. I hope I’m wrong,” Yabuta said.
Numbers for the second half of 2023 and for the neighbor islands will be available this spring.
Ireland said EMS teams are also seeing more people use Naloxone to save loved ones. “We’re seeing friends of the drug user giving it, family members, which is great, it’s life saving,” Ireland said.
Source: Hawaii News Now