The new drug that threatens US cities

In early April 2024, Philadelphia’s emergency rooms, which had already seen a lot of drug addicts, were flooded with more than 100 drug users experiencing unusual overdose symptoms. The growing stream of addicts arriving at the emergency room, and the unusual symptoms they experienced, prompted doctors instead to ask for a lab test, which led to the grim results: a particularly cruel new drug called medetomidine is spreading through the city streets.

In the New York Times it was reported that the new drug has already managed to spread throughout the country, and threatens to penetrate other cities. One of the addicts who spoke to the American newspaper said that although he had already experienced withdrawal from addictive drugs many times – he had never experienced a more difficult withdrawal than this. So far medetomidine has also been detected in Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina, Florida, Missouri, Colorado and Ohio, and to an increasing extent in New Jersey and Delaware. He also gives his signals in Chicago and Pittsburgh.

Medetomidine has created a new kind of drug crisis – one that is not caused by an overdose, but rather by withdrawal from the drug. It is an extremely strong veterinary anesthetic that causes an almost immediate loss of consciousness lasting up to 12 hours and, if not taken every few hours, leads to life-threatening withdrawal symptoms. During withdrawal, some patients become mute, appear completely withdrawn, while defecating on the floor or vomiting. Extremely high blood pressure can cause brain damage.

According to the records of the authorities in Philadelphia, in the first nine months of 2025 there were 7,252 calls to hospital emergency rooms due to withdrawal symptoms, compared to 2,787 calls in the entire year of 2023. The city’s hospitals are under a heavy load of patients who come with symptoms that doctors have identified as withdrawal from medtomidine – many of them needing intensive care.

From the drug dealers’ point of view, medetomidine is a smart choice. It is mostly produced in China and can be purchased cheaply online from suppliers of veterinary drugs and research chemicals. It is so addictive that dealers do not need to mix large amounts of additional substances with it.