New video footage obtained from the troubled neighborhood of Kensington in Philadelphia shows dozens of homeless individuals openly injecting drugs in broad daylight and lying unconscious on trash-ridden streets.
The impoverished town, previously referred to as the "East Coast's largest open-air drug market" by DEA officials, has seen an increase in fatal drug overdoses, exacerbated by the mixture of the synthetic opioid fentanyl and xylazine, a drug used by veterinarians to sedate animals such as horses and cattle.
Across Kensington Avenue and other areas of Philadelphia with high rates of open drug use and addiction, the city's health department has set up mobile wound care trucks to stem the tide of infections associated with xylazine.
In some cases, by the time the medics arrive, the infection has progressed so far that people wind up disabled for the rest of their life and will likely lose limbs because of the severity of the damage.
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"You can see just the body of individuals completely deteriorating before your eyes. They, you know, they'll be missing flesh all the way down to the bone in some cases," Michael McCarrick, the Chief Inspector for Philadelphia Police Regional Operations Command North, said.
Law enforcement has encountered numerous challenges when trying to address the deadly epidemic. McCarrick said addicted residents often refuse medical attention because they fear severe withdrawals they will endure while hospitalized. Furthermore, Naloxone, commonly known by the brand name Narcan, can resuscitate and reverse the effects of an opioid. However, it does not affect individuals exposed to the tranquilizer.
In April, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro directed his administration to schedule xylazine as a controlled substance. The notice of intent temporarily adds xylazine to the list of schedule three drugs under Pennsylvania's Controlled Substance, Drug, Device and Cosmetics Act.
McCarrick said the move has made it easier to track the drug from licensed medical professionals and makes it illegal to possess the drug without required licenses, offering law enforcement another tool to address the problem.
Democratic Councilman Mark Squilla, who represents the first district of Pennsylvania, said that while the city's outreach teams and nonprofits do a great job to address homelessness and drug use, certain policies are holding the city back.
"We have the heroin is now mostly fentanyl. The fentanyl is mixed with xylazine which is tranq on the street. We see the open wounds and sores. So, the more we continue to allow that behavior to happen, the worse it is for those folks that are in addiction. And so I would like to say, all right, you don't want the services, but you have to move on from here. You have to either leave this spot that you're in. Or you have to take the services necessary to get you help," he said.
According to Squilla, allowing such behavior to continue causes a negative impact on other people in the community and exposes them to people defecating in the street, needles left in the open and individuals engaging in petty crimes like theft.
"If we're just going to clean up around a problem like we do on Kensington Avenue every day, then we allow the same behavior to happen. We got to constantly clean up every day. It looks good for a couple of hours, and then it's back to how it looked before. We're spending a lot of resources and money that's not addressing the problem," Squilla said.
"So, it's like having a pig and putting lipstick on a pig. Still a pig. We're not really dealing with the crisis at hand, which is the unhoused people, the opioid epidemic, the open-air drug markets, and the violent crime that comes with that.
Last week, Philadelphia Mayor Jim and law enforcement officials announced the arrests of more than 170 people from a three-day operation that also led to the confiscation of $1.4 million worth of drugs and 27 firearms.
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"What's happening in Kensington is unacceptable. A life lost to gun violence or an overdose is one too many and we cannot allow the continued operation of a drug market that exploits and endangers our residents," Kenney said at the time.
Squilla said such a move was a positive step in the right direction but expressed concern that a general lack of enforcement could continue to allow issues around crime, homelessness, and drug use to persist.
"They arrested a lot of individuals. But what's going to happen to those individuals? The individuals get arrested and then next month, they're back on the street selling again. If that's the case, then we're not still addressing the problem. Right? So, I think we need a full collaborative effort," he said.
From McCarrick's personal experience, he recalled issues in Kensington going back to the late eighties. At the time, the area was a working middle-class neighborhood. The town had some depressed areas and some residual narcotics were flowing around the streets.
After the crack epidemic several years prior, McCarrick said drugs started to become an economy of the community, helping to bolster the wealth of the impoverished areas.
"People on the block would all receive benefits from the sales on the block. It pays their bills. I mean, it really kept them afloat," he said.
As the police started to see the first signs of the heroin outbreak, drugs suddenly became a lot more profitable. Because it was more profitable, Kensington received a significant influx of people from outside the community selling.
"Now you have the conflict between the organizations or the groups that were trying to sell this product in an area. And then with that conflict comes violence," McCarrick added.
In the nineties, when the internet really began to take off, feuds that used to spread through word of mouth took on a new life online. That dissemination of information carries over even to this day.
"If you Google right now, as tragic as it is, the best place to buy heroin in Philadelphia. Google tells you Kensington and Allegheny. Well, that's a challenge, right? Because if you have somebody who is addicted or looking right, they're being directed to a community based on a search," McCarrick said.
In the past, zero-tolerance policies from law enforcement upped the risk and accountability of engaging in open drug use or petty crimes. But today, police are attempting to balance new approaches that make room for determining what is driving that addiction and trying to get these people placement and services.
"Now the challenge becomes, you have this population that you're trying to get the services to. You got this population you're trying to hold accountable for their actions. You're trying to make arrests. You're trying to get the drugs off the street. And it's just the tide keeps pushing against each other. And in the middle, we're standing trying to balance," McCarrick said.
He noted that the problem becomes more complex as law enforcement tries to navigate how to represent the community best and make sure no one person's rights supersede that of another's. To further complicate the issue, evaluations from the police indicate that around 15% of the people in the area are truly homeless. The others are homeless addicted, wherein they are homeless or choose to be homeless because of their drug addictions.
"We want them to get help," McCarrick said. "But if they refuse to take the help, how long does that cycle continue? So, there's that shift I've seen in the time I was here and even in the time I left. The wave, the size of the population, the homeless-addicted population significantly increased."
Many people who pass by these individuals on the street want to help. They often provide food and provide clothing. But McCarrick said these people are often lost. Though they help in one way, they wind up hurting the homeless-addicted populations by providing them the resources necessary to stay put rather than accept treatment, placement or housing from the city services that are already put in place.
"They can get their drugs. They can get food. They can get shelter. They don't have to leave. And that's through discussion with the population. They say I don't have to go anywhere. I don't have to return home to the townships or the cities where I come from. I can just stay here. I get everything I need. So that has been a significant shift," McCarrick said.
