VIDEO: First responders in Tennessee are now training on how to respond to overdoses involving an increasingly popular drug that can be deadly.
Xylazine, commonly known as 'tranq,' is an animal tranquilizer and is sometimes mixed with fentanyl.
The emergency medicine Narcan is now widely popular and available to treat overdoses.
But 'tranq' is not an opioid, and that means Narcan is ineffective. Captain Skyler Phillips with the Chattanooga Fire Department says they are seeing this drug on calls throughout the city.
According to the DEA, it’s causing a public safety alert. "It is very fast, becoming one of the number one adulterants of drugs out in the street today," says Phillips. One of the more recent overdoses involving xylazine happened to a child whose life ended before it began.