Table 3.
Xylazine attitudes among people who use drugs and have xylazine awareness— Ohio, 2023–2024
| Characteristic | Xylazine awarenessa, Yes |
|---|---|
| No. (%) | |
| Total | 293 (100.0) |
| How do you feel about using xylazine? | |
| I would rather use xylazine than other drugs | 13 (4.4) |
| I use xylazine when it is available, but it isn’t my 1st choice | 16 (5.5) |
| I don’t try to use xylazine, but I’m not worried about it being in my drugs | 42 (14.3) |
| I do not want to use xylazine and try to avoid it | 214 (73.0) |
| Other b | 8 (2.7) |
| How important is it to know if xylazine is in your drugs? | |
| Not important at all | 19 (6.5) |
| Slightly important | 20 (6.8) |
| Moderately important | 32 (10.9) |
| Very important | 92 (31.4) |
| Extremely important | 130 (44.4) |
aRespondents were asked, “Before today, had you ever heard of xylazine being present in street drugs? (Xylazine is also known as tranq, tranq dope, Philly dope, sleep cut, or zombie drug.)” Missing responses were excluded from analyses
bIncluded responses “don’t know,” “NA,” “Not sure,” etc