Artist's death spotlights peril posed by xylazine-fentanyl mix

Henry Kinney Tunnel in Fort Lauderdale

Mental illness and heroin derailed the life of Amber Webber, a gifted – if troubled – artist whose soulful paintings evoke Picasso. After stints in rehab, Webber hoped to turn her life around, find a part-time job and enroll in a graphic arts program at a South Florida college.

“Keeping going,” she wrote in her diary. “Keep going. Keep going.”

But one night last year, the 35-year-old disappeared into the bathroom of a Miami-area group home. A roommate discovered her lifeless body 15 minutes later.

Heroin didn’t kill Webber. Fentanyl did. But the Medical Examiner’s Office ruled she also died from xylazine – the potent animal tranquilizer known as “tranq” that’s become notorious nationwide for causing deep stupors and rotting flesh wounds that sometimes lead to amputations. Authorities said a third substance also helped kill her: meclonazepam, a drug with antianxiety properties developed to treat parasitic worms.

Webber’s death reflects the growing toll of fentanyl-tranquilizer mixes in the United States, where more than 3,000 people died of xylazine-related overdoses in 2021 – triple the fatalities recorded the previous year. It’s also evidence of the evolving and unpredictable nature of the nation’s drug supply, dominated by fentanyl, but mixed with an ever-morphing array of synthetic substances that drug dealers use to stretch their supplies. Many of those substances, like xylazine, pose their own health dangers and complicate efforts to reverse overdoses.

Those working to stop overdoses say that tracking what’s in street drugs is a frustrating game of

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FAMILY OF AMBER WEBBER Handout Some of Amber Webber's artwork. Her family plans to exhibit it as a tribute to her and to raise awareness about the link between mental illness and addiction.