'Krokodil is not a threat': DEA refuses to recognise flesh-rotting homemade heroin as a problem for U.S. despite reports of multiple cases across the country



Three young women treated in hospital for effects of krokodil use



Doctors shocked at rapid spread across U.S. amid fears of epidemic



Two victims believed they were injecting heroin



Krokodil causes gangrene and leaves user with reptilian-like skin

Despite reports that flesh-eating krokodil is spreading across the U.S., a drugs watchdog is refusing to recognise it as a serious threat to America.

Fears that the drug could head to the United States have been rife since 2011, when a Drug Enforcement Administration official said the agency was aware of its use overseas.

But even with a drug treatment physician publicly announcing medics have now treated four users within the U.S., the DEA has said it is not ready to recognize it as an immediate threat.



This man's ankle (left) shows symptoms of gangrene and another individual's fingers are rotting away (both cases are from Russia). Doctors fear an epidemic of the cheap heroin substitute in the U.S.



Agency spokeswoman Dawn Dearden told FoxNews.com : 'We, the DEA, are not seeing cases of it. Nothing’s been turned into any of our labs. As far as the DEA is concerned, we have not seen any cases.'



The announcement comes after a worrying wave of some victims injecting themselves with krokodil because they think it is heroin, doctors said.

The first instances of its use in the U.S. were recorded in Arizona last month. It is already widely used in Russia.

Three cases have now been reported in Chicago and doctors say two of the women did not even know they had been sold the drug.

The victims were all aged between 18 and 25 and come from middle class backgrounds.



Krokodil, whose medical name is desomorphine, has been called a 'moonshine drug' because addicts are often able to cook the narcotic at home. Mixing the substance can leave traces of toxins in the final product which addicts then inject.



Pictures and videos of users in Russia show blackened fingertips, large open wounds, and even exposed bone where skin has fallen off. Prolonged or even short-term use can damage blood vessels, muscle, cartilage, and bone, and amputation is frequently the only way to save a patient’s life.

Doctors have warned of the horrifying side effects of the homemade drug, which is said to give a more powerful high than heroin and is much cheaper to produce.

The flesh rotting that is specific to the drug occurs directly at the injection site, often leaving users with wounds to their feet or arms.

It is created using a mixture of codeine and gasoline or oil and then filtered before being injected into the user's body. It is called Krokodil because it leave addicts with reptilian-like skin.



Dr Abhin Singla said he instantly recognized the smell of rotting flesh at Presence St Joseph Medical Center in Chicago and realized krokodil use had arrived in the city.

Dr Singla, the hospital's director of addiction services, told Joliet.Patch he was surprised at how quickly krokodil use had spread from Arizona.



He said: 'If you want to kill yourself, this is the way to do it.'

Rabid use of the drug in Russia has caused up to 2.5 million people to register and seek treatment as addicts. The average life span for a user is only two to three years.



'When drug users do it repeatedly, the skin sloughs. It causes hardening of their skin. It will cause necrosis,' explained Dr Frank LoVecchio.

Dr. Frank LoVecchio at Banner's Poison Control Center says he believes the two cases found in Arizona to be the start of a problem in the United States

He added two patients had arrived at hospital asking for help to wean themselves off heroin without realizing they had actually been injecting themselves with krokodil.



Dr Singla said he hoped warnings about the drug would spread through word of mouth among addicts.



He told the website: 'The goriness of the pictures of rotting arms and legs are hard to look at, but I think parents really need to share them with their kids.'

FLESH-EATING DRUG KROKODIL

Krokodil's, medical name is desomorphine and is created by mixing codeine with gasoline, paint thinner, hydrochloric acid, iodine and red phosphorous.



There are reportedly nearly three million users in Russia and the ep i demic began in Siberia and the Russian Far East.



The drug causes flesh to rot from the inside out and the addict's skin becomes scaly, like a crocodile's, hence the name.



Blood vessels burst and the surrounding tissue dies. Gangrene and amputations are a common result and sometimes bone can be exposed.



The drug high lasts around an hour and a half. It is three times cheaper to produce than heroin.

Last month, Banner's Poison Control Center in Arizona encountered the drug when two addicts arrived in emergency rooms with their flesh hanging off their body, exposing bone.



'We've had two cases this past week that have occurred in Arizona,' said Dr LoVecchio, the co-medical director at Banner's Poison Control Center to KPHO.Com.

'As far as I know, these are the first cases in the United States that are reported. So we're extremely frightened,' he continued.

Dr LoVechhio said the two cases he encountered are most likely linked and he declined to comment on the appearance of the two users.



'Where there is smoke there is fire, and we're afraid there are going to be more and more cases,' he said.

Some addicts in Russia have developed brain damage and speech impediments in addition to the horrific scars.

Prevalent in Siberia and the Russian Far East, the explosion of users first began in 2002. The numbers of Russians using the drug is thought to have trebled over the past five years.

