“Kensington sank deeper into depression in 2023. No progress has been made,” Frank Rodriguez, a recovering heroin addict who used to sell drugs in the neighborhood, told Fox News. “Kensington is the land of the lawless. Whatever vice you have, whatever it is, you can go to Kensington and the police probably won’t bother you. “
COMPANIES SET TRAPS TO PROTECT THEMSELVES IN THIS BLUE CITY’S DRUG PARADISE: DRUG RECOVERY
A child observes the consumption of addicts in the Kensington community of Philadelphia. (Jon Michael Raasch/Fox News Digital)
Over 1,400 people in Philadelphia — a new record — died from drug overdoses in 2022, according to the city health department’s most recently available data. That’s an 11% increase from the year prior.
Kensington, a global area known for drug trafficking and use, is among the areas hardest hit by overdose deaths, according to the data.
“If it’s not time to step back and reevaluate everything, when will it be?” Rodriguez said. The city officials, I think, accepted defeat. “
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Open drug use has been normalized in the neighborhood, and residents, including children, regularly see addicts injecting fentanyl and smoking meth. The area has also become a hot spot for drug users addicted to xylazine. The animal tranquilizer, which has infiltrated the nation’s illicit drug supply, was found in over 90% of drug samples tested in Philadelphia in 2021, according to the city’s health department.
Xylazine, known as a tranquilizer or zombie drug, can corrode flesh and leave its users with open wounds.
A Philadelphia tranquilizer addict flaunts his open wounds. Long-term use of Tranq would possibly lead to open wounds or skin ulcers, according to the CDC. (Fox News)
“You see other people who literally don’t have skin or bones yet and whose skin is rotting,” Rodriguez told Fox News. “It’s a terrible comparison, but it almost reminds me of the photographs you see of the Holocaust. “
“There are literally other people coming from all over the United States to Kensington to consume,” he said, calling the community “the epicenter of the drug crisis in America. “
CRISIS IN KENSINGTON: THIS AREA OF PHILADELPHIA HAS GONE FROM A SURE GOODBYE TO A “HELL ON EARTH”
However, Philadelphia Mayor-elect Cherelle Parker could become Kensington, Rodriguez told Fox News.
Parker, a Democrat and former city councilman, told voters in November that he wanted to call in the National Guard to help clean up the neighborhood. He also voted against drug use sites in the city.
The mayor-elect understands addiction issues, said Rodriguez, who met Parker on the campaign trail. He hopes it will pay off after his inauguration next month.
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“The best thing that could happen to Kensington would be for the law enforcement and the higher-ups, the city officials, to not allow what they wouldn’t want in their community,” Rodriguez told Fox News. “They would never allow for somebody to shoot up or to smoke crack on the corner of their street.”
“So why would they allow this to happen in an alien space on the street?” he said.
Philadelphia’s mayor did not respond to a request for comment.