The Carroll County State’s Attorney’s Office has issued an alert, warning county residents that the veterinary sedative known as medetomidine has been found in a state drug-checking program and is likely being mixed with fentanyl, a dangerous combination.

Samples of the drug appeared last month in the state’s Rapid Analysis of Drugs (RAD) drug-checking program, which samples paraphernalia turned in by drug users across the state. The substance is 200 to 300 times stronger than xylazine, also known as “tranq,” which is another veterinary sedative commonly misused and mixed with fentanyl, according to authorities.

Tim Weber, community education liaison for the state’s attorney’s office, posted the alert on Facebook on Dec. 31, a day after he was notified by the county health department about the RAD results. Weber oversees the office’s Early Intervention Diversion program that assists new substance users with avoiding incarceration and long-term abuse.

Weber said neither medetomidine or xylazine are scheduled with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, as both are veterinary sedatives, although both substances are commonly mixed with fentanyl to enhance sedation effects.

“Nine times out of 10, [fentanyl] is going to have xylazine or eventually this new one mixed in there, so it’s pretty scary,” Weber said in a phone interview Friday.

Weber could not confirm whether medetomidine has reached Carroll County but wrote in the alert that the Carroll County Health Department will be sending its own notifications when overdose levels spike.

The alert warns that medetomidine poses significant health risks, including overdose. It is linked to the rapid onset of severe and atypical withdrawal symptoms, such as sedation lasting for up to three hours. Slowed breathing and gray or blue coloration on lips or fingertips are signs of a problem, the alert said. Naloxone, or Narcan, will not reverse sedation but can assist with breathing, the alert said.

The alert says that medetomidine has become widespread in Philadelphia since November and that city officials have been among the first to provide information about overdose treatment.

“I hate getting this news the first week into the new year,” Weber said.

Officials from the health department could not immediately be reached to comment on department initiatives related to medetomidine.

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