JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – Agents with the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics (MBN) are battling a new and fatal cocktail of drugs.

Officials with MBN said they have seen a large spike in overdose deaths from fentanyl being mixed with an animal tranquilizer, xylazine. The cocktail has been referred to as tranq or as the zombie drug.

The concoction could cause immediate respiratory distress and heart failure.

“We had almost 30-related overdoses throughout the state from 2020. To date, the majority of those overdoses have occurred in Jackson, DeSoto and Harrison counties,” said MBN Director Steven Maxwell.

“It does not respond to Narcan, as does the opioids. And there is a medication which veterinarians use to reverse it, but we wouldn’t have that. We wouldn’t have it in emergency rooms. Typically, the only treatment for someone with xylazine overdoses is putting a breathing tube in them and breathing for them,” explained Dr. Randy Easterling with Harbor House Chemical Dependency Services.

Xylazine is not currently a controlled substance in Mississippi. Governor Tate Reeves’ Office said they’re discussing the possibility of making the drug illegal outside of a veterinarian’s office.