Shocking before and after pics of Zombie Tranq user on the last day of taking “monster” drugs and after 6 months clean

A FORMER Tranq addict has exclusively told The US Sun about her journey back from the ‘monster’ drug abyss.

Tracey McCann found herself using xylazine on the streets of Kensington, Philadelphia after a car accident that left her addicted to opiates.

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Xylazine is an animal tranquilizer that is increasingly found in heroin and fentanyl, often replacing them entirely.

It is becoming known as a zombie drug because of its skin-rotting effects in people who take it repeatedly.

Although xylazine is FDA approved as an animal tranquilizer used by veterinarians, it is not safe for humans.

The life-saving drug to reverse the overdose of naloxone or narcan, however, does not work.

People using the drug have found that open sores break out at the injection sites, which if left untreated can lead to amputation.

The 39-year-old, who is nearly six months clean, explained how she eventually went from opiates to xylazine and finally sober.

Tracey explained how she would buy opiates on the street after the car accident, which she developed an addiction to the painkillers after being weaned too quickly.

This then progressed to a point where she snorted heroin, then started injecting heroin, using cocaine and fentanyl, and eventually she found out her stashes were mixed with xylazine and that’s how she became addicted to Tranq.

Tracey said: “Nobody knew what we were taking, we just thought it was really good fentanyl and that’s how we would do it and there were a few spots that had the best stuff that we now know was the xylazine .

“So everyone would go there. I mean there would be times when I would be there to get the drug and there would be like 50 to 100 people on the block waiting for the drug dealers to show up.”

Tracey attended rehab several times and struggled to take care of herself by visiting nonprofit harm reduction services like Prevention Point, which gave her clean needles and medication for the lesions on her arms.

In a terrifying moment, she realized that a blood clot was developing during the injection, and she thought she was going to “die.”

The hospital told her she was septic and needed two blood transfusions, but she “pulled out the IV” and left due to the hospital staff’s judgement.

She added that she never returned to a hospital.

Tracey was evicted from her home in July and began living on the streets of Kensington.

She previously believed that if she became homeless, she would go to rehab.

“But when it came to rehab or living on the street, I was scared of the disease and the consequences of what might happen, so I ended up in Kensington,” she said

Speaking about how the drug gets you addicted, she explained the difference in time between getting high and coming out of withdrawal with heroin versus tranq.

Tracey said: “The attraction of the drug is when you do it, it knocks you over and when you wake up you’re sick, so you have to get the drug back when you wake up.

“With heroin the leg was longer and with fentanyl the leg was a little bit shorter but with Tranq it knocks you over and you wake up, you’re sick again and it’s a different disease, you have double vision.”

She added: “I remember when I was sick I would get these double visions and sometimes I could see three things and you get these migraines it’s like, I don’t even know,

“Obviously they don’t really know what causes it in the human body because it’s not made for humans.”

Tracey, who is six months clean this week, shared a shocking photo of herself on her last day of using drugs on Sept. 4.

In the photo, Tracey looks gaunt and weak as she smokes in the street with bandages on her arms and a half-empty liquor bottle by her side.

She said: “When you put a drug in your body, it meets your needs for food, sex, exercise and sleep.

“I’m usually between 145 and 155 and I’m at the end of my drug use
was 90 lbs at most.

“It’s not that food and water didn’t matter to me, it was just the money I would get, it would go towards drugs because I didn’t want to be sick [from withdrawal].

A close friend who had been clean for 12 years agreed to pick Tracey up and take her away from Kensington.

“I figured I either need to get a kill shot on the tranq or I need to get out of Kensington,” she said.

Tracey shared a photo of herself speaking to The US Sun, smiling, with a fuller face and a healthy glow.

She said: “It’s not like I was trying to kill myself, but I didn’t want to live, I was kind of hoping that the next bag would kill me, but I wasn’t suicidal in a way in trying to kill myself to hurt myself.”

At her home in St. Louis, Missouri, she said that drug use “at first is a choice, but once you put a drug on it, it’s not a choice.

“If I were to do drugs today, it would be an absolute choice for me now, but tomorrow my head will be obsessive and think I need it.

“It’s like this other monster inside you is taking over.”

Ahead of her sober anniversary this weekend, Tracey reflected on her past life.

“On September 4th I had nothing and I didn’t have myself, I didn’t know who I was,” she said.

She continued, “I looked in the mirror of my last the last day I used and I was like, who the fuck are you? what have you become

“I don’t want to say I’m glad I’m an addict, you know I’ve lived two lives and my life today is great.

“I’m thankful for that because you know I really have people who care about me and you know yeah I have rough days but you know it was better than anything I’ve ever lived, to be honest to be.”