A street drug known as "tranq" has been showing up laced with illicit fentanyl, a dangerous combination that has contributed to an increase in overdose deaths, according to the Biden administration.

The administration declared illicit fentanyl laced with xylazine-the animal sedative commonly known as "tranq"-to be an emerging threat facing the United States, and a new analysis of toxicology reports illustrates its sharp rise, according to CNN Health, reporting data published on June 30 in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

"In June 2022, xylazine was present in nearly 11% of fentanyl overdose deaths, almost a four-fold increase from January 2019, when the combination was present in about 3% of cases," according to the article on http://CNN.com.

Federal health officials want physicians and hospitals to be aware of the emergence of this drug and to help track its effect.

Because xylazine is relatively new, medical examiners and coroners might not be familiar with it, which means that toxicology reports that include all detected drugs are a critically important supplement to death certificate data, according to the CDC researchers.

Xylazine is approved by the FDA for animals (typically used in horses) only, and not for any use in humans. The drug-even without fentanyl-can leave drug users with severe skin ulcers and necrosis. Health officials are not sure what causes these soft tissue wounds, and say it could be from dangerous substances added to it. (See McPhillips D, Kounang N. Xylazine present in more than 1 in 10 fentanyl overdose deaths in the US. CNN Health/cnn.com, June 29, 2023.)