TIME LightBox The World's Deadliest Drug: Krokodil's Legacy: http://ti.me/1Ybv5iK (Photograph by Emanuele Satolli)

TIME Photo The World’s Deadliest Drug: Krokodil’s Legacy: http://ti.me/1Ybv5iK (Photograph by Emanuele Satolli)

TIME Photo The World’s Deadliest Drug: Krokodil’s Legacy: http://ti.me/1Ybv5iK (Photograph by Emanuele Satolli)

TIME Photo The World’s Deadliest Drug: Krokodil’s Legacy: http://ti.me/1Ybv5iK (Photograph by Emanuele Satolli)

TIME Photo The World’s Deadliest Drug: Krokodil’s Legacy: http://ti.me/1Ybv5iK (Photograph by Emanuele Satolli)

TIME Photo The World’s Deadliest Drug: Krokodil’s Legacy: http://ti.me/1Ybv5iK (Photograph by Emanuele Satolli)

TIME Photo American drug-enforcement officials say fears of an imminent krokodil epidemic are overblown. But it’s hard not to be frightened of a drug that leaves a reptilian mark on its victims.

TIME Photo About a decade ago, Russian doctors began to notice strange wounds on the bodies of some drug addicts—patches of flesh turning dark and scaly, like a crocodile’s. It didn’t take them long to discover the cause: the patients had begun injecting Read more ... a new drug they called, predictably, “krokodil.”

TIME Photo About a decade ago, Russian doctors began to notice strange wounds on the bodies of some drug addicts—patches of flesh turning dark and scaly, like a crocodile’s. It didn’t take them long to discover the cause: the patients had begun injecting Read more ... a new drug they called, predictably, “krokodil.”

TIME Photo About a decade ago, Russian doctors began to notice strange wounds on the bodies of some drug addicts—patches of flesh turning dark and scaly, like a crocodile’s—in the hospitals of Siberia and the Russian Far East. It didn’t take them long t Read more ... o discover the cause: the patients had begun injecting a new drug they called, predictably, “krokodil.”