Video: “They look like zombies” Drug addicts take to the streets of Kensington, Philadelphia

September 13, 2021 – 6:25 p.m.

Prostitution, street dwellers, crime, streets full of rubbish, health crisis and death are the scenery the streets of Kensington, Philadelphia draw. This is where addicts from various parts of the United States come in who do not have money and cannot overcome their need for drugs. There, they say, they find them cheap and pure. The press describes it as the largest outdoor drug market in this country. How did you become that?

“In the early 2000s, Dominican gangs began carrying Colombian heroin that was not only purer but much cheaper than historically predominant heroin imported from Asia. The decentralized Kensington market maintained competition Most cantons were run by small groups of unaffiliated traders, making it difficult to monitor the area; if they arrested a trader, there was always someone there to replace them, “says an article on Kensington. published by The New York Times in 2018.

Kensington is a neighborhood in Philadelphia, USA. UU. Where an important part of Latin migration has reached. According to census data from this country, 15% of Latinos live in this state. But addicts and street dwellers have also arrived there.

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The US press reports the existence of “Badlands (camp), an area along the trail that became a refuge for drug addicts for the past 20 years,” About 70 people lived along the tracks and up to 200 passed through here to inject – “, notes the local press. But in 2017 he was taken by the authorities: to find about 500,000 used syringes.

This did not prevent other “camps” from being formed. A shocking video uploaded by youtuber Kim Gary and went viral on social media shows a Kensington street full of addicts being thrown into the streets, lost in drugs or wandering aimlessly as a result of narcotics.

The situation in Kensington County got even worse with the pandemic for the homeless and made this place the worst social situation in the United States. And while Covid-19 increased indigence, prostitution and the health crisis, the drug is what complicates this place the most.

“Philadelphia County has the highest overdose rate of any of the 10 most populous counties in the United States. The city’s Department of Health estimates that 75,000 residents are addicted to heroin and other opiates, and every day, many “They are traveling to Kensington to buy drugs. The neighborhood is part of the largest group of overdose deaths in the city. In 2017, 236 people suffered a fatal overdose there,” a 2018 article published in The New York Times.

The situation has worsened. Addict testimonials indicate that on Kensington Avenue many people smoked crack or methamphetamine or injected heroin. “Needles were nailed to the arms, neck and skin between the toes and they began to finish. Some people were lying on the ground looking like dead bodies,” say citizens interviewed by local channels.

The problem is exacerbated in 2017 when heroin, which according to witnesses quoted by NYT, was “the purest and cheapest in the region” begins to mix with unpredictable amounts of fentanyl. By 2019, deaths in Philadelphia had increased by 95%.

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“Some drug dealers mix fentanyl with other drugs such as heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA. They do so because a very small amount of fentanyl causes an immediate reaction, making it a cheaper option,” say drug experts. ‘EE. UU.

And although Philadelphia’s prison system has become the largest provider of drug treatment in the city, police realized they can’t fix the problem by securing the provision of Narcan, an aerosol that prevents overdoses.

What is fentanyl?

Fentanyl is a strong synthetic opioid similar to morphine, but 50 to 100 times more potent. It is a prescription drug that is sometimes also used illegally. Like morphine, it is usually prescribed to patients with severe pain, especially after surgery.

It is sometimes also used to treat patients who suffer from chronic pain and have physical tolerance to other opioids.

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Synthetic opioids — including fentanyl — are currently the drugs most commonly associated with overdose deaths in the United States. In 2017, fentanyl accounted for 59.8% of opioid-related deaths, compared with 14.3% in 2010.

Today it is used to potentiate the effects of other drugs, which makes it up to fifty times more powerful than heroin and 100 times more than morphine. Fentanyl that is consumed illegally and is most often associated with recent overdoses is manufactured in laboratories. This synthetic fentanyl is sold illegally in powder form, dumped on paper towels, in eye drop containers or nasal sprays or in pills similar to those of other prescription opioids, the National Institute for Abuse notes. drugs in the US UU.

According to this organism, the effects of fentanyl are: extreme happiness, lethargy, nausea, confusion, constipation, sedation, trouble breathing, loss of consciousness. Some of the symptoms that people have from the videos that went viral and that many described as “zombies”.

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