IT’S the 9am rush hour in one of America’s biggest cities.
But instead of commuters, the train carriage is packed with zombie-like drug addicts.
Welcome to Chicago, Illinois – the new US capital for ‘tranq’.
‘Tranq’ or ‘Zombie Dope’ is the street name for Xylazine, a powerful animal tranquiliser – so dangerous it’s never been used on humans – which earned its nickname for its ability to rot skin and cause users to fall into a deep sedation or a zombie-like stupor.
Now, it’s being increasingly mixed with the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl, which is 50 times stronger than heroin and is responsible for more than 200 overdose deaths each day across America.
Chillingly, each death drives more addicts to the dealer of the deadly dose – as users seek ever more potent cocktails.
Used more often in liquid form, but also sold as a powder online from Chinese suppliers for just $6 a kilo, three tenths of a cubic centimetre – the size of a dried pea – can sedate a human and cause death.
But it’s no wonder it’s so rampant when a $5 bag – around £3.70 in the UK – costs less than a takeaway coffee.
Within 30 seconds on the metro, our reporter witnessed a man slumped onto a carriage seat with his eyes closed, apparently high on the lethal mix.
Scattered around him was drug paraphernalia including baggies, condoms full of white powder and old needles.
He was only one of dozens The Sun saw taking over the trains as a way to escape the freezing conditions of the ‘Windy City’ and in turn coming face-to-face with law-abiding residents.
Others swigged from vodka bottles and could barely move in a zombie-like trance commonly associated with taking fentanyl.
One carriage, which had eight seats, was packed with druggies riding to the end of the train line and back again, scaring locals with occasional outbursts and brandishing metal bars as weapons.
Commuter Ashley Woodfork, 33, said: “I’ve lived here for 11 years and the metro has become one of the most dangerous parts of the city.
“Drug users have taken it over.
“You used to just see them on the streets under tunnels and certain areas but now it’s become so prolific you are being almost assaulted with it as you try to go to work.”
The drug has been famously associated with the city of Philadelphia – widely considered ground zero for the tranq crisis in the US – but it has now hit Chicago.
‘Deadliest drug threat’
The Drug Enforcement Agency said last year in a warning: “Xylazine is making the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, fentanyl, even deadlier.”
Professionals say that’s because xylazine doesn’t respond to naloxone, most commonly known as narcan, a spray used to reverse the effects of opioids on fentanyl users.
Dr Wilnise Jasmin, medical director of Behavioral Health at the Chicago Department of Public Health, explained “Xylazine is not an opioid so it cancels out the medicine and its effects cannot be reversed.”
You don’t remember taking it
Tranq user
After leaving the train, our reporter was confronted with homeless encampments lining the streets – just yards from affluent neighbourhoods and businesses – as users brazenly take the drug in daylight.
Shockingly, one man, whose face was covered in sores, collapsed against a wall as he lit a pipe filled with tranq, in Baltic temperatures of minus one degrees.
He smoked it three times in a minute before struggling to stand and adopting the “fentanyl fold” – a rigid stance, bending over at the waist and unresponsive, which makes users look like zombies.
It’s the physical signal that the central nervous system is suppressed and often happens just hours before an overdose.
His pal – across the road – told us: “Tranq is the only drug you can get here now.
“It’s ruining the city.
“The high doesn’t last for long so you need more and more.
“It is killing us but we don’t care as we want to die.
“Even in the freezing cold we will still be on the streets doing it.”
Tranq is the only drug you can get here now. It’s ruining the city
Tranq user
We spoke to several tranq users who explained it was “the only drug available” in Chicago and costs half the price of pure fentanyl, at just $5 for a bag which can last up to three days.
Drug dealers, our reporter was told, almost exclusively mix fentanyl with xylazine because it’s cheaper for them to make and is more addictive for users with a high that lasts longer.
‘Zombie dope’
Fentanyl addict Brett Bradley, 44, who agreed to speak to us, said: “I started using dope in 2010 and I’ve been in prison four times since then for short-changing cash registers because of drugs.
“I lost my best friend to it.
“He was sleeping on my living room floor and I woke up to him dead.
“There’s no heroin around here, it’s all fentanyl mixed with xylazine, called “zombie dope”.
“That’s all you can get.
“You can boil it, smoke it, put it in pipes, and inject it but mainly you smoke it.
“It comes in a powder or liquid.
“People are scared of dying but once they have that habit they can’t stop it.
“You have a chain on your leg – you aren’t going far as you have zero control over it.
“It’s a fixed fight as you can’t win. More and more people are taking it.
“It’s $5 a bag which will last you for three days.”
Fellow addict Gardner Springfield, who is from Chicago, 54, added: “There weren’t as many overdoses in the past.
“It’s got so much worse.
“It’s cheaper which is why tranq is so popular and a high more potent than just fentanyl although it still doesn’t last long enough.
When you come to you are already in withdrawal and need another fix
Gardner Springfield
“When you come to you are already in withdrawal and need another fix – it’s that addictive.
“It’s the cheapest drug in Chicago at the moment and the cheapest place to buy it in the US because there are so many addicts in this city so there’s a lot of competition.”
‘Rotting flesh’
Another user, who called himself Lonzo, explained: “It’s real scary. It’s suicidal to take this drug.
“You don’t feel anything. It’s as if you’re not there.
“I have to ask myself why do I take it? I have nearly died lots of times.”
He told our reporter that if we were to take it we would “die instantly” as it’s so dangerous.
Fentanyl is present in over 90 percent of opioid overdose deaths in Cook County, the largest county in Illinois which contains Chicago.
What is even more shocking is that when someone dies users will go to the drug dealer who sold the drug because they think it’s more potent
Pastor Phil Kwiatkowski
Xylazine-related deaths have increased by 16.8 percent from 2.9 percent over the last two years and over 99 percent of those involved fentanyl.
Laura Fry, who works for a recovery and overdose prevention centre in the city, said: “When xylazine is combined with fentanyl, it gives a boost.
“It makes the high last longer and for drug dealers it’s cheaper.”
Even the White House has issued a warning about the drug which constricts blood vessels and cuts off oxygen flow to the body, sometimes causing abscesses that rot the flesh.
Ms Fry said that her outreach teams are starting to see the effects as users are showing up with open wounds, adding: “It’s not just at the site of injection.
“They’re typically showing up on arms and legs.
“We’re seeing some association with the wounds developing where people have a scrape or a cut.”
‘Amputations’
The open sores are so bad they can result in amputation.
One ex-drug addict – who asked not be named – said: “When you’re in a group of three or four people, you can smell rotting flesh, and you know that at least one of them is suffering from these open sores.
“It almost looks like the walking dead, zombies.”
Pastor Phil Kwiatkowski, President of Pacific Garden Mission, a religious organisation which helps the homeless, said: “We are seeing a lot of fentanyl mixed with other drugs.
“We have seen numerous overdoses here.
“You see a lot of younger people taking it now. You used to see older men and now 18 year olds are on it.
“People who we have seen overdose go back again and again as it’s so addictive.
“What is even more shocking is that when someone dies users will go to the drug dealer who sold the drug because they think it’s more potent.”
Driving around the city, our reporter saw evidence of Pastor Kwiatkowski’s words as hundreds of addicts were camped out under the underpasses.
Tents were erected in four inches of snow as memorials and flowers laid next to them to honour those who have died from the drug.
One man – who agreed to be photographed – showed us tranq in a glass crack pipe he hid in his boxers.
‘Zombie’ drug cities across the US
LIBERAL cities across the US are suffering from a ‘zombie’ drug epidemic as deaths across the country continue to soar.
LA and Philadelphia prioritise harm reduction by giving out xylazine test strips to addicts on the streets.
Here are some of the known ‘zombie drug’ cities across the US:
- LA – Xylazine reached its peak in early 2025 with a prevalence of 29.5 percent in the fentanyl market. It is currently the fastest growing major market for tranq.
- New Orleans – Louisiana has seen some of the highest growth rates in the south. Xylazine is now a standard in the fentanyl market.
- Portland and Seattle – Both in the early-to-mid stage of ‘zombie dope’ surge. Fentanyl remains the primary killer but xylazine is mounting.
- Philadelphia – The epicentre where over 90 percent of street dope contains fentanyl.
- Boston – Remains a major hub where xylazine is present in significant majority of fentanyl supply.
- San Francisco – Like LA, San Fran is seeing a transition from cleaner fentanyl to mixtures. Public health alerts for xylazine-related skin wounds have increased in the Tenderloin district in the last 18 months.
- New York – Xylazine has been found in 53.7 percent of opioid samples.
Pointing to the mixture, which he said he smoked everyday, he went on: “When you take this drug you don’t get up.
“You pass out. You don’t remember taking it.
“It’s as if you are really dead.”
When asked if the high lasted two hours – as told to us by another user – he exclaimed: “Hell no.
“This high lasts one minute for me.”
Just moments later a second man, who was unable to communicate as he was so high, ran out from behind a pillar to do a rendition of Gene Kelly’s Singin’ in the Rain.
As we made our way to leave the underpass, one ‘Zombie dope’ abuser awoke from his slumber and fittingly shouted: “The devil made this drug.”
Deaths and overdoses associated with xylazine across the US
LATEST studies show that while overall drug related deaths in the US began to decline in 2024, xylazine’s presence is only growing.
In 2023, xylazine related deaths reached approximately 6,020 – up from 99 deaths in 2018.
Rates were also higher among men than women and black than white individuals.
Xylazine continues to be found in roughly seven to 11 percent of all illicitly manufactured fentanyl-involved deaths nationwide but preliminary CDC reports in 2024 suggest a downward trend, in alignment with the 24 percent national drop in overdoses.
Philadelphia was originally the epicentre for xylazine, however it appears to have advanced West and South.
Shockingly, between 2020 and 2021 alone, xylazine related deaths surged by 1,127 percent in the South and 750 percent in the West.
