Xylazine prevalence and concentration in the Los Angeles fentanyl market, 2023–2025

Background

The veterinary sedative xylazine has been mostly described on the East Coast—yet early reports indicate that it is now arriving to West Coast fentanyl markets. Emerging drug checking approaches can provide information about the concentration and prevalence of xylazine in illicit fentanyl.

Methods

Fentanyl samples from a community-based drug checking program in Los Angeles, California were assessed using direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry (DART-MS). A subset was analyzed with liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) to quantify the concentration of xylazine, fentanyl, and other compounds.

Results

Among n = 536 fentanyl-positive samples, n = 103 were xylazine-positive, and n = 78 had quantitative results available. Xylazine positivity rose from 0 % in 2023 quarter 1 to a peak of 29.5 % in 2025 quarter 1. A significant time trend was observed (OR per quarter year= 1.35 [95 %CI: 1.19–1.52]). Xylazine concentration in fentanyl samples was generally low, with a highly skewed distribution (mean=2.42 %, sd=7.80 %). 76.9 % of xylazine-positive samples had <1.0 % xylazine concentration. Compared to xylazine-negative samples, xylazine-positive samples were more likely to contain bis(2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-4-piperidyl) sebacate (BTMPS) [46.60 % vs 17.30 %], and lidocaine (65.0 % vs 29.6 %), and had lower average fentanyl concentration (6.12 % vs 10.7 %).

Conclusions

We note increasing xylazine positivity among samples of illicit fentanyl in Los Angeles, California. The distribution of xylazine concentration is highly skewed, with a small number of very high concentration samples, and majority with <1 %. Nevertheless, more research is needed to study the health impacts of even the low concentration xylazine that is most predominant here; the average participant may still be exposed to a physiologically significant dose of xylazine.