Bro it's so freaking crazy that you got these brothers talking. Incredible journalism.
@themilkiestmanalive2531
This documentary needs to be showed in schools. Bravo Andrew.
@dominicwalker1899
Andrew has single handedly taken over the role VICE used to do. Absolute amazing work bringing these stories to us 👍
@denzelsfall7907
Man the ice cream trucks going off in the background while in the middle of a hellscape is mad dystopian. Thank you for raising awareness and for your incredible journalism Andrew, don’t ever stop.
@TylerSmith-gy8ys
I've been a lurker and don't normally comment. I've been watching you since All Gas No Brakes went viral all those years ago. You've evolved and grown as a journalist, and it shows. Even beyond your journalism and videos, the message that is conveyed through your work is powerful. Keep doing what your doing Andrew, and be safe
Drug users in the Philadelphia neighbourhood of Kensington have increasingly been turning towards a drug called xylazine, or “tranq”, a veterinary sedative often mixed with other drugs such as heroin or fentanyl. But when people begin to use the substance, it quickly causes horrific damage to their bodies – including necrosis and skin tissue rotting. Authorities in Philadephia and across the nation are getting increasingly worried about the drug's spread and the damage to victims. For the past few years, fentanyl, a painkiller 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine, has been one of the most widely trafficked drugs here. In 2021, the public health department of the city of Philadelphia reported that 77 percent of deaths by overdose in its territory were linked to fentanyl.
When I first went down there [to Kensington last November], I thought it was a fentanyl crisis, but it was a tranq problem. Fentanyl and tranq are two different drugs. You see a lot of people bent over, almost sleeping standing up, not in the real world – that’s tranq. Fentanyl doesn’t do that. There are a lot of people taking other drugs that are cut with fentanyl, and they’re also putting tranq stuff in all of it: 90 percent of the drugs tested here are positive for fentanyl and xylazine. I used to use regular heroin. When I interview people, I ask if they can find regular heroin and they say no. The problem I run into in interviewing people on tranq is the smell, because of the wounds. Around 80 percent of the people have sores, they’re living in filthy conditions and a lot of them have the same bandage for many weeks. I help them with that. It’s a specific symptom of these wounds: shooting up in the same spot starts to damage the skin, there’s not enough blood so it starts rotting.
https://observers.france24.com/en/americas/20230804-zombie-drug-tranq-xylazine-kensington-philadelphia
