The gratitude tree on the wall of Gateway Recovery Center in Inver Grove Heights is a group thank-you note from those battling substance abuse.

“It steals, it robs the life that we have,” declares Stephanie Goode, the center’s vice president of Recovery Services.

Gateway provides detox services for about 2400 people a year, half of them recovering from opioid use disorder.

A growing concern here is xylazine, known on the street as tranq.

We asked Goode how bad this drug is.

“It’s crazy in the sense that it was never meant for human consumption,” she explains. “It is a horse tranquilizer that has never been approved for humans to consume.”

Goode says one-third of her opioid-use clients have tested positive for the drug.

Mixed with fentanyl, it can extend the high from one hour up to four hours.

“Both are bad, but one isn’t meant for humans, so we’re seeing really serious effects,” Goode says. “We’re seeing a lot higher blood pressure when withdrawing, more agitation, discomfort.”

A Department of Health report released Wednesday calls xylazine an ‘emerging concern.’

The agency noted in 2023 that one in 11 toxicology samples statewide that tested positive for fentanyl also detected xylazine.

In the metro, it was one in 15.

“Many of our people don’t know they’re taking xylazine,” Goode says. “Most know they’re taking fentanyl, most don’t know they’re tak[ing] xylazine, so when they test positive for it, they’re pretty shocked.”

5 INVESTIGATES first reported last year on the emergence of xylazine in Minnesota and traveled to Philadelphia, where the drug is now widespread.

RELATED: ‘Good luck’: A warning from Philadelphia as xylazine spreads to Minnesota’s drug supply

We found users with gaping skin wounds.

For others like Kali Lamb, it left damage to her internal organs.

“It ruined my life, It absolutely ruined my life,” she said at the time. “I see people losing limbs, losing their lives over this.”

“We’re seeing massive sores, to the point where it’s basically eroding down to the bone,” Goode declares.

The Health Department says there have been 70 xylazine-related deaths between 2019 and 2022.

MDH says in 2022 alone, there were 34.

Health experts say xylazine is not an opioid, so the lifesaving drug naloxone has no effect on it.

Goode says her biggest concern is that tranq may become a predominant drug in our area. “It will really flood our medical system,” she explains. “Because we don’t even necessarily have all the services for that severe wound care.”