Cheaper, more potent synthetics including tranq are reaching US streets
A BBC correspondent, Quentin Sommerville, traveled to Chicago’s South Side to document a new wave of synthetic drugs sweeping the United States, a development unfolding even as the country has recorded a multi-year decline in overdose deaths.
The video report, titled “Inside Chicago’s battle against the synthetic drugs flooding the US,” was published Sunday on BBC News. Sommerville, with camera journalist Darren Conway, traveled to South Side, Chicago, where communities are battling the spread of synthetic drugs including an animal tranquilliser known as tranq. The BBC carried a viewer warning that the video contains descriptions of drug-taking and distressing images.
US drug overdose deaths have fallen from a peak of around 110,000 in 2022 to roughly 70,000 last year, according to figures cited in the BBC report. But the BBC’s reporting suggests those gains may be at risk as cheaper, more powerful synthetic drugs reach American communities.
The BBC reported that America’s decades-long drug crisis may be accelerating, with authorities increasingly concerned about cheaper, more powerful synthetic drugs reaching US streets, including an animal tranquilliser called tranq.
The BBC report comes as President Donald Trump’s administration has pledged a crackdown on drug cartels, designating many as terrorist organisations earlier this year.
The BBC tagged the report under several related subjects, including the drugs trade, the United States, Chicago, opioids, fentanyl, and addiction. The article includes a link to additional BBC coverage of the synthetic drug crisis in the US.