This will certainly sound like something from a sci-fi flick, but there is a "zombie" flesh-eating drug being abused, and it's probably coming to a town near you. Krokodil (pronounced crocodile) gives users an intense "zombie-like" high state, and the side effects are ulcerated skin and limbs.

Krokodil is an extremely addictive injectable opiate that has made its way from Europe to to the United States. Five individuals have been hospitalized in the Chicago suburb of Joliet, Ill., including two sisters who they thought they were buying heroin at the time, but ended up with Krokodil. Cases have also been reported in Arizona, Florida and Oklahoma.

"It's a zombie drug -- it literally kills you from the inside out," Dr. Abhin Singla, an internist and addiction specialist at Joliet's Presence St. Joseph Medical Center said. "If you want way to die, this is a way to die."

Dr. Singla is alarmed by the drug, one that has caused the loss of significant parts of one of his patient's legs. The flesh-eating drug, also known as desomorphine, gives it users black or green scaly skin as a side effect, just as it causes the loss of limbs. The drug produces severe damage to soft tissue damage at the site of injection. Infection moves to the veins, where the drug fails to dissolve into the bloodstream. Clumps appear in the veins which sets the stage for gangrene and, eventually, necrosis. According to one user, the skin "starts like a burn from a cigarette" before it blisters. Victims have also stated that maggots have nested in their skin, and doctors have complained about "the smell of rotting flesh." And skin grafts given to victims are unlikely to save limbs or lives.

Krokodil is ten times cheaper than heroin, usually selling for $8 a hit, and it can be cooked in someone's home like meth. The drug is concocted using codeine, iodine, phosphorus, hydrochloric acid, industrial cleaning oil, alcohol, and gasoline or paint thinner. The drug was invented in the 1930s and has been used as an alternative to heroin in Russia and Germany for the last decade.

In 2011, Russia and Ukraine had an explosive number of users abusing the drug. 20,000 people in Ukraine and 100,000 people in Russia used Krokodil that year, according to an International Journal Drug policy study. During use, many binge on the drug for several days, exhibiting irrational behavior, memory loss, sleep deprivation, exhaustion and speech problems.

There have been no officially confirmed cases of Krokodil abuse in the US, despite several individuals showing symptoms. To be confirmed, the DEA would need a sample of the drug, but they haven't been successful at acquiring it. Also, the DEA does not know how widely the drugs have spread in the United States.