The battle against illegal drugs is never-ending

Illegal drugs have plagued the United States for decades. Most of us probably remember the public service announcements on television that showed an egg frying, followed by the message, “This is your brain on drugs.”

Former first lady Nancy Reagan championed the “Just Say No” campaign of the ’80s and ’90s in an effort to steer children — and maybe some adults — away from drug use.

There has been plenty of effort put into keeping children away from drugs and warning them of the dangers and consequences of taking them, but it hasn’t seemed to have much of an effect.

These days it’s not marijuana that children are being warned about, but rather, deadly drugs such as fentanyl and other opioids. They have become such an issue in schools, where some students have overdosed, that school administrators are now being trained on administering and are being equipped with Narcan. If given quickly enough, Narcan can reverse an overdose and save a life.

In addition to fentanyl, we can now add xylazine or “tranq” to the list of overdose-causing drugs that are having a deadly effect on Californians. Four days ago, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the drug, which is resistant to Narcan, was found in the systems of some who had overdosed. It’s been detected in a growing number of overdose deaths, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency.

“It is commonly encountered in combination with fentanyl but has also been detected in mixtures containing cocaine, heroin, and a variety of other drugs,” the DEA website says.

“Tranq” is a non-opiate sedative, analgesic and muscle relaxant authorized in the United States only for veterinary use, according to the US Food and Drug Administration. It’s not currently a controlled substance under the US Controlled Substances Act.

“Xylazine was first noted as an adulterant in Puerto Rico in the early 2000s through DEA reporting and laboratory analysis, and around a decade later it was documented on the island as a drug of abuse on its own, which has continued to present,” the DEA website says.

Drug dealers are purchasing the drug, which runs about $6 to $20 per kilogram, and mixing it with fentanyl or heroin, to reduce the amount of those drugs, the website says.

“It may also attract customers looking for a longer high since xylazine is described as having many of the same effects for users as opioid, but with a longer-lasting effect than fentanyl alone.”

While some are actually seeking “tranq,” others are getting it unintentionally when they buy either fentanyl or heroin that is mixed with the drug.

That’s exactly how some unsuspecting students were getting ahold of fentanyl; they were looking to buy other pills and instead got some that contained the deadly drug.

Now tranq appears to be even deadlier than that and Narcan-resistant.

Meanwhile, the battle against illegal drugs will continue, just as it has for the past few decades.

Hopefully one day, people who buy them will put an end to the war on drugs by no longer purchasing them.

As Nancy Reagan’s anti-drug message preached all those years ago, “Just say no.”