PORTLAND, Ore. — Content warning: Some images in the video above may be considered graphic or disturbing.
At 32 years old, Willy has a history of addiction that’s often heard on Portland streets: first heroin, then fentanyl pills, and now, fentanyl powder. But lately, he’s been smoking a new, hidden drug.
“It's in the fentanyl. The tranq is used for animals, obviously to tranquilize them. Some way, somehow, it got into the fentanyl, the opiate,” Willy explained Friday morning.
He's talking about an animal tranquilizer called xylazine, known on the streets as “tranq,” a flesh-eating drug making its way across the Pacific Northwest.
“I never experienced anything like this in my life. It’s very life-threatening,” Willy said.
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The first time he smoked tranq, it was laced into his fentanyl.
“I just know the dope was good … Some of my buddies were like, 'No, you don't want to take that. Don't smoke that no more; that has tranq in it,' so I stopped taking that,” he said.
However, it was too late for Willy: The drug led to an infection in his feet, he said.
“I experienced maggots with it. I experienced gangrene,” he said, pulling back bandages that revealed pink, swollen ankles filled with pus.
Studies suggest that the drug's constriction of blood vessels can cause ulcers on the skin that then become infected, resulting in necrosis that could eventually require amputation. It can also result in more deadly overdoses — while medications like Narcan will reverse opioid overdoses, tranq is not an opioid. So, someone who overdoses on a mix of fentanyl and tranq may not be revived by the use of Narcan.
Multnomah County Health Department data obtained by KGW shows that one person died from an overdose involving tranq and fentanyl in 2022. Five people died from the drug in 2023. There are no confirmed deaths involving tranq so far this year.
“Fortunately, here, we're still in the single digits,” said Dr. Teresa Everson of the county health department.
Everson said they are watching the rise in tranq closely.
“The first thing we always go to in public health is making sure people are aware of what exists in the local drug supply, making sure folks know how they can stay safe,” Everson said.
“It's not going to close up or go away unless you take a break from the fentanyl,” Willy advised — and that's something he’s now finally considering. "People don’t got hope out here, and I hope that I can get off it."
The county health department is working closely with law enforcement by testing the drugs they take off the streets to track the rise in tranq. Right now, they're still seeing low levels of the drug compared to some East Coast cities, such as Philadelphia and Baltimore, where tranq is more prevalent.