Attorney General Marty Jackley is proposing a bill to restrict the animal pharmaceutical xylazine.
But some in the ag industry said this could have unintended consequences.
Attorney General Jackley presented his legislative package outlining concerns he hopes legislators focus on this upcoming session. One of his objectives is to schedule Xylazine as a class three drug.
“Xylazine is an important drug for the agriculture community. So, veterinarians often times will utilize that around large livestock. It is sometimes referred to as a horse tranquilizer. We want to make sure that that drug is and remains available to our agricultural community through vets. The challenge has been, the human consumption,” said Jackley.
Xylazine is a drug used for sedation on animals such as horses, cattle, and other livestock non-human mammals. Jackley said drug dealers are utilizing xylazine to mix or cut other drugs sold on the streets.
That’s why one of the bills in his legislative package would make it a class three drug.
Without a drug schedule classification, xylazine can be easily obtained. Jackley said much like fentanyl, xylazine is usually added to other street drugs to manipulate the way the user feels.
“Both the governor and I through the department of health, believe that the best way to address xylazine so that the Ag community can still utilize it but that we are stopping it for human consumption is by scheduling it like we do other drugs," said Jackley. "We are proposing that it is a schedule three drug which would make it available through a prescription but also to make it so that the drug dealers can’t possess it, it isn’t readily available to them to use for fentanyl use.”
Jackley said classifying the drug would also allow law enforcement to act when encountering someone in illegal possession of the drug.
Some farmers and ranchers are concerned, however, with how scheduling xylazine could impact their daily operations.
Russ Daly is an SDSU Extension and State Public Health Veterinarian. He said scheduling xylazine would increase the workload of veterinarians across the state.
“The record keeping that goes along with controlled substances, the veterinarians have to pay staff members and have to supervise the record keeping that goes along with that. That comes with added cost and burden to the veterinary technicians and the staff members. So, in many cases those veterinarians will probably have to pass along that cost to the rancher or producer,” said Daly.
Daly said there are manufactures of xylazine that have stated they would not ship to South Dakota if the drug were scheduled.
Four xylazine manufacturers have not returned requests for comment.
