This reporting is made possible by the Northern Michigan Journalism Collaborative, led by Bridge Michigan and Interlochen Public Radio, and funded by Press Forward Northern Michigan.
Mexican drug cartels are shipping purer forms of meth into rural Michigan, replacing the drugs that were once made in home labs and full of impurities, police and lab testing data shows.
Meanwhile, opioids have been cut with more impurities that can render overdose treatment ineffective and cocaine use is on the rise, the data shows.
The lab results show rural parts of the state are rife with methamphetamine, cities have more cocaine, and opioids are everywhere in lesser amounts.
While Michigan’s drug overdose deaths have fallen from a high of 3,000 in 2021 to just more than 1,900 in 2024, the most recent state data shows, drug use remains high. Some 269,000 Michiganders 12 and older reported using illicit drugs other than marijuana in 2023 and 2024, the most recent federal data shows.
Local production of meth has grinded to a halt within the last five years, said Elaine Dougherty, lab manager at the Michigan State Police Bridgeport crime lab.
“Now, we get the crystal meth from the drug cartels,” said Doughterty. “It's not made from Sudafed anymore. It's not made in pop bottles anymore. It's literally made in factories in Mexico.”
In Grayling, about 60% of the drugs tested at that crime lab are meth, while Marquette comes in over 80%. Opioids and cocaine each make up roughly 10% to 15% in those labs.
While cocaine is a smaller percentage of the drugs tested across the state, Dougherty said the drug is more popular than it’s been in years, driven in part by increased production in South and Central America.
Testing on the street
On Monday's Up North Lowdown, we'll hear more about how the Harm Reduction MI office in Traverse City tests street drugs for impurities. Subscribe to the podcast now.
The number of tests run for cocaine at State Police crime labs statewide has almost doubled within the last three years — from 15% to 28%. That follows global trends showing the number of global cocaine users has grown to 25 million people in 2023, up from 17 million a decade earlier, according to the United Nation’s 2025 World Health Report.
That report says an estimated 3,708 tons of cocaine were manufactured in 2023, increasing by almost 1,000 tons from the year before. The increased supply has increased access and purity of the drug for users.
Opioids, Dougherty said, are the most heavily adulterated drugs on Michigan’s market, with around 20% of synthetic fentanyl samples containing xylazine, a sedative often paired with opioids for its similar effects.
Xylazine does not act on the same opioid receptors pathway, so opioid overdose reversal medication such as Naloxone does not work.
“We were rarely seeing large amounts of xylazine in a sample,” said Doughtery. “I know on the East Coast, they were seeing samples with five times as much xylazine as fentanyl.”
Xylazine levels peaked in Michigan in early 2025, according to MSP lab data, being found in 34% of fentanyl samples. That gradually declined at the end of the year.
Another non-opioid veterinary sedative, medetomidine, has increased from being non-existent in the last year to being found in over 12% of fentanyl samples. That drug behaves much in the same way as xylazine, but is 100 times more potent.
In 2024, three overdoses in Michigan were linked to medetomidine, leading state health officials to raise the alarm.
Damage by xylazine can result in deep skin wounds by restricting blood flow and damaging tissue.
Staff at Traverse City’s Harm Reduction MI office report treating xylazine wounds occasionally — usually with groups and in small timeframes.
“If fentanyl with xylazine makes it to Traverse City, it's likely several people are ingesting it. Especially if you always get your drugs from the same source,” said Dougherty.
One reason for that risk, she said, is that local dealers often don’t know what’s in the drugs.
“The dealers don't know when their stuff has xylazine in it,” said Dougherty. “In an odd way, (dealers) take pride in what they sell. So if they are saying they're selling cocaine, they want those customers to come back. So they want it to be cocaine that they're selling.”
Harm Reduction also tests drugs across the state, but at a different entry point than the State Police. While the state labs test drugs after they are confiscated, Harm Reduction MI tests drugs while they are on the street.
Director Pamela Lynch said most people usually find the nonprofit through word of mouth and come to test their drugs after a bad reaction. Harm Reduction’s testing data often includes more minute data than the state lab, which reports drug mixtures and cocktails.
Lynch’s lab data also reports different cocktails, but also reveals smaller adulterants — substances which appear in drugs incidentally or for little known purposes.
Around two months back, Lynch said, a woman brought in a substance to be tested after her boyfriend had an especially bad reaction and had trouble communicating. The sample later came back with results of PVC plastic.
“A lot of times, people know there's a lot of stuff in there that doesn't belong in there,” said Lynch.
Common adulterants include caffeine, acetaminophen, lidocaine, antidepressants and sugars. Sometimes, the substances are unexpected.
“We even had a sample recently with flower dye,” said Lynch. “The flower dye actually ends up making little spots on their skin.”
Whether knowing what’s in illegal drugs changes behavior — for dealers or people in active addiction — is unclear. But for Lynch, the purpose of her lab is to keep people as healthy as they can until a person is ready for recovery.
“They may think that they have a safe supply. They may trust their dealer,” said Lynch. “They all know they're buying fentanyl. They don't know that they're buying xylazine until they test it.”
This reporting is made possible by the Northern Michigan Journalism Collaborative, led by Bridge Michigan and Interlochen Public Radio, and funded by Press Forward Northern Michigan.
