Navigating an unpredictable supply: lived experiences of xylazine exposure among people who use drugs
Raagini Jawa, Margaret Shang, Samia Ismail, Stephen Murray, Cristina Murray-Krezan, Yihao Zheng, Sarah Mackin, Kenny Washington, Pedro Alvarez, Jaime Dillon, Gary McMurtrie, Alexander Y. Walley, Jane M. Liebschutz · 2026
Read Navigating an unpredictable supply: lived experiences of xylazine exposure among people who use drugs by Raagini Jawa, Margaret Shang, Samia Ismail, Stephen Murray, Cristina Murray-Krezan, Yihao Zheng, Sarah Mackin, Kenny Washington, Pedro Alvarez, Jaime Dillon, Gary McMurtrie, Alexander Y. Walley, Jane M. Liebschutz (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13474891.txt.
Description
Raagini Jawa and co-authors survey people who use drugs in 2026 about exposure to xylazine, a sedative now mixed into street opioids. Clients at three Massachusetts syringe programs who reported a recent drug wound took part. Four fifths reported xylazine exposure in the prior ninety days. Effects and harms were compared by exposure status.
Sedation, blackouts, and wounds were widely reported among the exposed group. Most felt afraid and frustrated, calling xylazine an unwanted contaminant. Cost pressure, withdrawal fear, and lack of other supply kept many from avoiding it. Respondents backed real-time drug checking and safer supply as urgent needs.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Raagini Jawa, Margaret Shang, Samia Ismail, Stephen Murray, Cristina Murray-Krezan, Yihao Zheng, Sarah Mackin, Kenny Washington, Pedro Alvarez, Jaime Dillon, Gary McMurtrie, Alexander Y. Walley, Jane M. Liebschutz |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 39150 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |