Medetomidine Causes Overdoses In Pittsburgh
Trends in illicit drug use vary according to time and geography vary as much as trends in clothing styles. You might be a veritable clothes horse in Pittsburgh, but if you travel to Los Angeles, people might tell you that your clothes are tasteless or outdated. Likewise, in the 1970s and 1980s, people turned to Quaaludes if they wanted an evening of fun, and in the 1990s, MDMA, then known as ecstasy, was all the rage. Today, Quaaludes, which have long since been discontinued in the legal pharmaceutical industry, are so rare that anyone who finds one is more likely to put it in a museum than to swallow it. As for MDMA, there have been clinical trials to test its effectiveness as a treatment for mental health conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); some optimists out there even believe that legal MDMA is the next legal cannabis. Meanwhile, the crack cocaine epidemic came and went, and drugs like naloxone and buprenorphine have helped to reduce the prevalence of opioid overdose deaths. Meanwhile, new drugs continue to enter the drug supply, and a veterinary tranquilizer has recently turned up in the blood tests of drug overdose patients in Pittsburgh. If you are facing charges for illegal possession of medetomidine or other veterinary drugs, contact a Pittsburgh drug crime lawyer.
If the Opioids Don’t Get You, the Veterinary Tranquilizers Will
Many drugs in the illegal drug supply are either counterfeit versions of pharmaceutical drugs approved for medical use, or else drugs that have never been legal, but which chemists first synthesized in an unsuccessful attempt to make safer, more effective, or less expensive versions of existing medications. Some of these drugs are legal for use in animals but not in humans. Veterinary tranquilizers such as xylazine often show up in the illegal drug supply, often in powders that contain a mixture of drugs, including synthetic opioids.
In the News
Pittsburgh news reports have recently sounded the alarm about a drug mixture called flysky. The drug is a mix of synthetic opioids and a veterinary tranquilizer known as medetomidine. Medetomidine is a relatively new drug, first described in the veterinary literature in 2007. In its legal uses, it is given to dogs, cats, and horses who are undergoing surgery. Since 2022, it has appeared in the illegal drug supply in several areas in the United States. Medetomidine has been detected in drug mixtures seized by law enforcement in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Missouri, California, and Colorado. At least two people in western Pennsylvania overdosed on flysky in July 2025. Medetomidine is the most dangerous component of flysky because, while naloxone can reverse the effects of even the strongest opioids, it is not effective against medetomidine.
Contact Gary E. Gerson About Criminal Defense Cases
A criminal defense lawyer can help you if you are facing criminal charges for possession of drugs that are legal for veterinary use but not for medical use in humans. Contact the law offices of Gary E. Gerson in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania about your case.
Source:
cbsnews.com/pittsburgh/news/flysky-drug-fatal-overdoses-fayette-county/
