Release Date
Geography
Language of Resource
Full Text Available
Open Access / OK to Reproduce
Peer Reviewed
Objective
Our objectives were to curate information about xylazine through social media from people who use drugs (PWUDs). Specifically, we sought to answer the following: (1) What are the demographics of Reddit subscribers reporting exposure to xylazine? (2) Is xylazine a desired additive? And (3) what adverse effects of xylazine are PWUDs experiencing?
Findings/Key points
People on Reddit described xylazine as an unwanted adulterant in their opioid supply. The most common route of xylazine use was intranasal use (57%). Thirty-one of 59 (53%) reported experiencing xylazine withdrawal. Frequent adverse events reported were prolonged sedation (81%) and increased skin wounds (43%).
Design/methods
Seventy-six posts were extracted via natural language processing (NLP) from 765,616 posts by 16,131 Reddit subscribers (January 2018 to August 2021). A survey was developed to gather additional information about the Reddit subscribers. This survey was posted on subreddits that were identified by NLP to contain xylazine-related discussions from March 2022 to October 2022.
