Zombie horror
1 min read . Updated: 24 Feb 2023, 01:04 AM IST
Premium- The US has been taken aback by semi-conscious people found on streets unable to stand and displaying patches of skin that look as if rot has set in
Zombies were supposed to be the stuff of music videos (Michael Jackson’s Thriller onwards) and Hollywood flicks (it’s a whole genre), but Americans have been recoiling in horror at the real sight of what reminds them of the living dead. The US has been taken aback by semi-conscious people found on streets unable to stand and displaying patches of skin that look as if rot has set in. Alarmed, health authorities had to check for contagion, even as rumours arose of a “zombie virus". In reality, blame for it should be ascribed to a drug sold freely on the streets of Philadelphia, a city at the heart of the country’s opioid crisis. What’s showing up are the effects of xylazine, sometimes known as “tranq" or “zombie drug", a formulation reportedly approved as a veterinary sedative whose abuse by humans is causing health havoc, fatalities included. That this drug’s availability faces only light restrictions and has seldom had toxicology screenings has helped it spread relatively undetected. Whatever its psychedelic kick, if it turns out even mildly addictive, the US must crack down fast. American drug abuse has been a problem that the country has seemed oddly helpless against.