Evil flesh-eating ‘zombie drug’ that is ravaging America killed my baby brother… now I fear it’s going to take hold in Britain
- EXCLUSIVE: Karl Warburton died at home having taken ‘tranq dope’
- A coroner ruled that he died of acute aspiration pneumonitis
The family of Britain’s first victim of a terrifying new flesh-eating ‘zombie drug’ have shared his horrifying story – in an attempt to warn people off taking the powerful pharmaceutical which has ravaged the U.S. and is now feared to be coming here.
This week a West Midlands coroner ruled that Karl Warburton, 43, died because of acute aspiration pneumonitis, a condition often caused by inhaling toxins. And listed on his death certificate as contributing to his demise was xylazine, a powerful sedative which leaves users in a trance-like stupor, the first time this been recorded in the UK.
Karl, 43, died at his home in the West Midlands last May having taken heroin laced with xylazine, known commonly in the States as ‘tranq dope’.
The drug – used by vets to tranquilise large animals and which lowers the heart and breathing rate to dangerous levels – had never previously been found in the UK.
In Los Angeles, Philadelphia and other large American cities, where xylazine has taken hold, groups of trembling addicts, who mix it with heroin or fentanyl, are now routinely seen hunched over, almost comatose, as large patches of their skin rots.
Diane Warburton, 48 with her late brother, Karl Warburton. The family have shared his horrifying story in an attempt to warn people off taking the powerful pharmaceutical which has ravaged the USA
For Diane Warburton – Karl’s older sister – the prospect of similar dystopian scenes playing out on the streets of Birmingham and other parts of Britain is terrifying
Karl Warburton, 43, (pictured) died last May from the effects of xylazine combined with other drugs including heroin, fentanyl and cocaine
And fearing that similar scenes will soon be seen in Britain, Mr Warburton’s family have shared the tragic story of how he transformed from the angelic six year old boy pictured here after a lifetime of abuse and trauma to becoming the first Briton to die from taking the zombie drug.
READ MORE: Flesh-eating zombie drug ‘tranq’ takes over LA streets as users with rotting skin are seen hunched over and spaced out across city
The drug has spread to Los Angeles of late, with news crews capturing people hunched over and on the ground, strung out on the drug. The problem, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office officials say, is that the drug is technically a legal substance
Beaten by his alcoholic father, Karl Warburton left the family home aged eight and turned to heroin and cocaine to block out his painful childhood.
For Diane Warburton – Karl’s older sister – the prospect of similar dystopian scenes playing out on the streets of Birmingham and other parts of Britain is terrifying.
Diane, 48, a mother-of-three told MailOnline: ‘It doesn’t bear thinking about, this xylazine is a killer. It’s evil stuff.’
Xylazine is hard to trace in the UK as drug screenings here are not designed to detect it – and there are fears it is increasingly being added to heroin supplies in this country.
She explained: ‘There is a big problem with drugs in Birmingham and in the Midlands, as there is across the country, and this new drug, now here from America, will make the issue much worse.
‘The thing is when you get as low as Karl did, you don’t really care what you’re putting into your body as long as it numbs you.
‘I’ve no idea how he got it or where he got it. I don’t believe even Karl knew what was in the stuff he took before he died. He wouldn’t have known anything about xylazine.
‘The drug dealers don’t care what they cut their heroin with, either, just as long as they can maximise their profits.
‘I wouldn’t want any other family to go through what we’ve gone through with Karl. The sale of this stuff has to be stopped before it can take hold.’
Xylazine is a tranquilliser developed in the 1960s to help veterinarians working to treat cows, horses and sheep among other animals.
This week a West Midlands coroner ruled that Mr Warburton died because of acute aspiration pneumonitis, a condition often caused by inhaling toxins
Xylazine, a veterinary tranquilliser approved in the US for animals, has flooded the illicit US drug market. It leaves users in a zombie-like state and rots their skin from the inside, causing gaping sores
Los Angeles officials are trying to stop the spread of the flesh-eating drug xylazine – also known as ‘the zombie drug’ – that has taken over the city
The pain-relieving drug works by stimulating animals’ muscles to relax by prompting less norepinephrine and dopamine to be released into the central nervous system.
America’s Drug Enforcement Administration says xylazine takes a few minutes to kick in with effects lasting for up to four hours in animals but likely much longer in humans.
In many cases, it leaves users ‘knocked out’ on litter-strewn street corners and at bus stops.
The drug also causes open wounds to appear, which nurses have described as though something is ‘eating away your flesh from the inside out’.
A coroner determined Karl’s cause of death as acute aspiration pneumonitis, a lung injury caused by inhaling toxins, and listed xylazine as a contributing factor.
But worryingly the presence of the drug in his system was nearly missed and only discovered by chance after toxicologists noticed a ‘strange peak’ in the results of his drug screening.
Dr Caroline Copeland, director of the National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths, who led a study into Karl’s death at King’s College London, said: ‘It probably is elsewhere but isn’t being detected.
‘If this is suggesting that we are now getting our heroin from similar sources to the United States, then absolutely it needs to be tested for.
‘The most immediate thing to be done is to tell heroin users that this is around.’
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