Preparing Pennsylvania localities to deal with xylazine, a horse tranquilizer that’s mixed in with fentanyl, has cost the state almost $500,000 thus far.

The money, spent in an effort to send out 50,000 xylazine wound care kits, is part of a harm-reduction effort to get help to Pennsylvanians with addictions. More than 5,000 people have died annually due to overdoses in recent years, though deaths have started to fall recently.

Much of the problem with xylazine, also called tranq, has been focused on Philadelphia — but its reach has expanded westward in the state.

To lessen the health and social problems created by xylazine use, the Department of Health announced in August that it would disperse 50,000 wound care kits across the commonwealth.

“Based on data collected by the Department of Health, Pennsylvania has seen a 50% increase in the number of xylazine-related overdose deaths between 2022 and 2023,” DOH noted in a press release. “Xylazine contributed to drug overdose deaths in at least 51 counties across the Commonwealth in 2023, based on preliminary data. This is a stark contrast to 2017, when xylazine was not noted as contributing to any overdose death in Pennsylvania.”

In 2018, xylazine contributed to 51 fatal overdoses. By 2021, that number skyrocketed to 1,156, according to preliminary data from the Department of Health.

The kits, which contain sanitizing wipes, gloves, under pads, sterile water and gauze sponges, ointments, and medical tape, cost approximately $9.13, according to DOH records, including supplies, warehousing services, and shipping costs. About 240 groups across Pennsylvania received them, ranging from hospitals and rehab clinics to AIDS-focused groups, recovery organizations, libraries, and police departments.

Demand, however, exceeded supply — most organizations requested twice as many kits as they received. Plans aren’t in place to repeat the 50,000-kit distribution effort, though it has inspired other efforts.

Xylazine didn’t get criminalized until May; before then, suburban police warned that xylazine complicated their job and made it harder to get users into jail or recovery services.

“Xylazine’s emergence in Pennsylvania’s illicit drug supply is a major public health concern,” Department of Health Secretary Debra Bogen said in August. “Because the wounds caused by xylazine are more complicated and severe than those traditionally seen in people who use other drugs, there is a need for quick action, new medical protocols, and access to appropriate self-care wound supplies.”

The Department has started to offer xylazine wound-care trainings on Oct. 23 and Nov. 6.

ANTHONY HENNEN | The Center Square