And the FDA approved a painkiller more powerful than Fentanyl with the laughable thought that this will NEVER be used outside of a hospital setting...the opioid crisis will be getting much, much worse. But I guess as long as big pharma continues to make money while the corpses pile up, it’s okay.
15
The homelessness and addiction problems need to be addressed on a nationwide scale, and there is no easy solution.
Many intolerant cities and communities push their homeless and addicted people out, forcing them into more empathetic communities. These more empathetic communities pay for this is many ways. This is not fair to anyone, especially the people who are being treated as less than human.
We need to address this issue as a nation, and stop pushing these problems off on our neighbors. We need practical solutions, and we need to devote resources and political will to making this happen for the benefit of everyone.
4
My father grew up in Kensington a century ago, and owned a store there until 1970. I spent a lot of time there when I was growing up. It was never a genteel area, but was a solid neighborhood for the people who lived there in those days. Very sad to read what's become of it.
4
For some reason I thought it was common knowledge that the opioids are the more truly addictive and destructive drugs. The fact that doctors prescribe them makes me believe that our medical system is really fake and only about money for whoever lobbies the best. Marijuana is schedule one and opioids are not. That makes me think our government thinks we are stupid and that our purpose is to be the profit centers for the people who contribute the most to them.
I personally think we should legalize all drugs , meaning do away with all constraints and have absolutely no government involvement. This will result in many deaths at first, but the population decline will shock our corporations into doing a few things that are not simply for profit and potentially will make our politicians realize the same.
If you think our business and political "leaders" care you should consider getting some therapy for your psychosis.
8
92 million Americans took prescribed opioids in 2015, over 72,000 died last year from both legal, and illegal opioids. Three fourths of all Americans drink alcohol, 200 million, and there are 12 million alcoholics. It seems to me that easy access, and cheap substances are causing epidemics, so that there aren't enough people, professionals, and financial resources at any level of government, city, county, state, or the federal government to be able to deal with it, because very few of the above stay sober, or don't die, they go in, and out of overdosing, and rehab to the point of exhaustion by everyone close to them. Both alcoholics, and those addicted to pain killers, from what I personally know from those who have both problems, really don't want to quit. Society can't expend ever more and more resources on these people, to the exclusion of the needs of the greater society, and the children in America, as they are the future of our society, not addicts, sad to say. Keeping health crises in the greater society like HIV, hepatitis, and other infectious diseases like tuberculosis, sexually transmitted diseases, etc. from exploding should be the number one priority. It is like we need 2 million permanent beds for the above where these people would need to be housed for several years to keep them from using. That cost would be 2 million times 40 thousand per year per person which would be $80 billion or more. Prevention is not how we handle things in this country.
8
Marijuana legalization is going to help solve this problem.
Or maybe it will make it worse.
Or am I missing something here?
2
After a while, this is a choice.
Get help and get off it and live a life that, though difficult, is free of this poison or decide to die by being a junkie.
I'm support alternatives to prison but for some that's the only thing that works.
9
"Kensington Avenue, the neighborhood’s main drag, was a congested mess of Chinese takeouts, pawn shops, check-cashing joints and Irish pubs." Imagine if, instead, the sentence ran like this: "Kensington Avenue, the neighborhood's main street, was the busy home to fast-food restaurants, pawn shops, check-cashing shops, and pubs." Wouldn't sound so bad without the ethnic stereotypes and obiter dicta, would it?
28
The heroin problem in Kensington will be fixed by the market within a decade or so.
Gentrification will bring in a clean up and redevelopment of abandoned properties. New residents won't tolerate open criminal activity. The addicts and dealers will be pushed out.
It happened in Times Sq, it will happen in due time in Kensington.
Drug addiction has been a common part of human history. There is no reason to be alarmed by it. It is only the concentration of destitute addicts in one area that is a problem.
8
What a powerful piece of reporting.
Seems to me that this story has been happening in one place or another across many cities and many states in the USA for well over half a century.
The cities change, the drugs change. Ethnicities can change. But the pattern is otherwise unchanged.
Seems to there's a common thread linking Philadelphia, New York, Detroit, Los Angeles and probably countless other drug ravaged communities. The underlying issue is there is something uncivil about US society.
While individuals are left trying to triage major social problems on places like Kensington, it is politics and business as usual for those that have.
Hard to see that in such a divided and divisive country there can ever be meaningful change.
14
Those people blaming the city better watch what they say. As people fled to the suburbs and took all their money with them, these areas became prime spots for this to grow out of control. Now, housing prices in the suburbs have been pretty stagnant for years while city prices have increased. It's a reverse of the white flight as once dead neighborhoods are being revitalized and big suburban homes are not as lucrative as they once were. Just 10 years ago, my neighborhood here in Philly was a "no go" area but is now completely gentrified. I myself have seen some once nice suburban areas back in my hometown region turn into less than ideal spots and neighbors are asking themselves how did this happen and who is to blame. At the end of the day, it's everyone's problem because these people will eventually be pushed out due to gentrification and where they end up is the big question. What's the right answer? I literally have no idea.
4
While I sympathize those addicted and their families, I fail to see how continuing to cast addiction as some incurable disease is helpful. It is not an infection, perhaps a condition with genetic precondition - but the important point is that becoming an addict requires a choice. Perhaps only once, but a choice nonetheless. It is a public health problem, and solving it should include limiting people’s exposure to these drugs. Lock up all the dealers - period. And outlaw the use of narcotics in medicine except under highly controlled circumstances.
Or do like Philadelphia, nothing.
20
Reading your comment, your opening line about sympathizing with them seems false. You're pretty clearly judging them and I would hazard a guess, have never needed to be prescribed pain medicine. It's a slippery slope to addiction and most people never even realize that they are at risk. Throw all the dealers in jail better start at Big Pharma's house too.
15
@John
It´s not really a choice if one gets started on a prescribed pain killer and then loses access to healthcare or the pain continues but the prescription does not.
13
Sad story of a once proud blue color neighborhood. My parents grew up here and I went to school at Ascension in the late 70's. Now my oldest son teaches blocks away on Lehigh Avenue. The surrounding neighborhoods are booming with success yet Kensington is stuck and no simple solution in sight. Even if you think the addicts, suppliers etc don't deserve a thing, or even help, the community at large needs a solution - its beyond Philadelphia - its an epidemic beyond the local community groups, police, city administration. Kudos to them working this daily and hopeful a solution is possible soon.
5
As an African American that grew up in Philadelphia during the "War on Drugs", I'm having a hard time sympathizing with theses drug addicts.
52
Jennifer. Thank you for shining a spotlight on this epidemic and the broken lives taken from the culture of heroin addition. I moved to East Kensington in July. What I've seen in the past 4 months has rocked me: prostitution happening in front of children/schools/churches, open drug use in front of children/schools/churches, pregnant addicts living under bridges, addicts defecating behind parked cars, OD’ed addicts on stoops, perfectly normal looking people begging for money, etc.
THIS IS ON THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA TO CLEAN UP.
I appreciate the amazing work of our police force, but they are under staffed with no resources to deal with this mess.
Thank you for getting our city’s attention with this article.
13
Beautiful, painful article. A topic that needs way more of our attention and our HELP.
One thing I would ask is that readers pay more attention to this one sentence. Do some of your own research.
' “The narrative of the opioid crisis is focused on big-pharma greed,” '
Thank you for this, Jennifer. I hope it sparks a change. Addiction is a disease and these people need our compassion and, again, our help.
5
Wish cities could sue Halliburton for sending our kids to war, for having to dull the emotional and physical pain with opioids, while they made billions.
22
The only person worthy of receiving compassion and empathy in this story is Desiree Gilman. Good on her for doing the right thing and trying to raise a family in spite of her terrible environment. The rest of the addicts in the story don't deserve an ounce of compassion, much less attention. Their selfishness financially, emotionally, and psychologically strains the limited resources of a city that would be better off helping with real diseases, which aren't self inflicted. Failures of the mind, body, and character aren't comparable to suffering brought on by cancer or uncontrollable accidents. Yet articles like this, which portray addicts more as sympathetic figures than societal disappointments, do more harm than help; these people need to own their past and present in order to have a permanent future, not free drugs to salve their temporary suffering.
18
Addiction is a disease, not a character flaw or moral failing. Every person out here is someone’s child. We all travel different paths in life, experience challenges along the way; some people end up sick with addiction, and some people end up with a cold, callous heart. Each person deserves an opportunity to change, to grow, no matter how long it takes. Some of us are out here volunteering and trying to offer help to those in need; no judgement, just basic human kindness. I’m the grateful parent of a recovered addict who gives thanks for that hard-earned miracle through my volunteer work. Come join us. Be part of the solution.
43
@Jack I understand why you may withhold empathy from those who you mention. What I do not understand is how any of us feel we are immune to falling victim to addiction if we experienced the same contributing factors as the individuals mentioned here. For example, Krista, started using after she was raped in college. We do not know her story, but I imagine there were many moments along the way when someone may have offered her assistance, opportunities that may have set her on another course. These individuals are us. Human.
19
But don’t you think that doctors who prescribe highly addictive medicines should be held accountable? Most addicts and od’d cases are from prescribed drugs. There are people in military with PTSD or injuries that need treatment and while the country will gladly take them to war they don’t offer any decent rehab for the same people. Everyone has a responsibility for themselves, I completely agree but it’s more complex than that and we need to have empathy to find solutions.
14
Like some other commenters below, I teach in this neighborhood. So many of my students are casualties of this epidemic in some way, because they've got family members struggling with addiction, or family members embroiled in the drug trade, or both. Even if a student is lucky enough not to be personally affected by these things, it's wearying to see the catastrophe happening all around you, to have to tell your younger siblings to watch out for needles as you walk to school. But I want to be clear: I love my job. My students impress me constantly with their joy and resilience and hard work. My school is a safe and welcoming place where a lot of great learning happens every day. I want to make sure my students' voices do not get drowned out in the larger debate about how best to handle the crisis.
I wrote a poem in response to the bleakness of this piece:
https://www.rattle.com/ghazal-for-kensington-by-sally-obrien/
15
@Sally I live in EK too. Keep speaking up for the children! Great poem! But I do like baby kale:-/
4
Beautifully written and profoundly moving. My heart breaks for all the people affected by drug addiction in the Kensington neighborhood- -addicts, their loved ones and families, neighbors, community leaders, medical professionals, government officials. Addiction is such a challenging problem throughout our country and I pray that someday, somehow, a clear path to a solution presents itself. I will have images from this piece ingrained in my mind and heart for quite some time.
4
Thank you for this article. I teach in this neighborhood. Every morning we step over needles and drug paraphernalia in the school yard as we enter the building. The things that my students see and know about are not to be believed. It’s heartbreaking and makes teaching an impossibility. All we do is teach to the test, because that’s what we are told to do, instead of trying to help these poor kids. I pray every night that things will change.
9
This is the most profound story I have read in years. And the most sad. Yes, Jennifer Percy should be nominated for a Pulitzer prize for this. The article has allowed me to see how intractable our own "homeless" problem in San Francisco will be without first addressing the drug epidemic.
So much of this started with the advertised-as-safe drugs like Oxycontin that were approved by the FDA and misleadingly marketed by Purdue and Mallinkrodt, and which led users down the path to heroin.
The article shows what a death sentence heroin is, both for the users and for the community the users (and pushers) inhabit. Why do we as a civilized, supposedly advanced society allow this?
15
One of the saddest essays that I have ever read. The author should get a Pulitzer Prize for it.
26
One large subgroup in the population described here (and mentioned in these comments) is combat vets. Recognize that your friendly military recruiter, offering a way to learn a trade and make a living, also offers the probability of becoming a victim of America's continual wars, traumatized and susceptible to addiction. The cost of the federal military machine is then passed on to municipalities and cities like Philadelphia, but the feds pass them little or no money to deal with the problem. The feds have no trouble, however, granting billion-dollar contracts to "defense" contractors.
46
@Al McKegg yes soldiers go to Afghanistan to secure the poppies that they will later be addicted to
6
An article in last week’s Washington Post highlighted last year’s record heroin poppy production in Afghanistan. Wearing blinders, we have made Afghanistan safe for the production of heroin.
6
Portugal should be a model for the whole world for what they did to almost wipe out their drug epidemic and the spread of HIV. I can imagine other countries catching on and doing the same thing,, but I can't imagine the US taking such an approach. This country's puritanical mindset won't allow it. We will weep and wail about the drug epidemic until there is no one left to do the weeping and wailing.
My first husband did a tour of duty in Vietnam and never saw combat. He was a water skiing instructor at a Special Forces R & R camp. Nevertheless, he became addicted to heroin. The government said at the time that they didn't let anyone come home addicted. They lied. I can't get the picture out of my mind of watching him shoot up in his recliner and the silly smile on his face as he felt the rush. Then his eyelids became droopy and he went on the nod. His addiction killed him at 40.
He came from a well-to-do family on Long Island, and when I left him he moved in with his mother, let his successful business fail and was in and out of jail for years. His mother spent her last dime trying to help him and she died penniless in a boarding house. I'm just glad she died before he did.
I wish we would get over ourselves and do something intelligent about the problem rather than putting bandaids on it. Oh well, this country isn't smart and humane enough to even provide affordable universal healthcare, so I guess I'm just living a pipe dream.
44
@Carole A. Dunn I briefly googled Portugal and resolve drug problem. They did it by decriminalizing it but our problem isn't just that is is illegal, we have people overdosing left and right who are resuscitated with narcan over and over.
According to an NPR article:
"Under the 2001 decriminalization law, authored by Goulão, drug dealers are still sent to prison. But anyone caught with less than a 10-day supply of any drug — including heroin — gets mandatory medical treatment. No judge, no courtroom, no jail."
Where are we going to give them mandatory medical treatment? Where will we house them? We can't even house the homeless who aren't taking drugs. How could the U.S. accomplish this?
Portugal is a small country compared to the US. Perhaps one state could receive all the funding as trial but what state would want the burden?
11
@SB Part of the reason that Portugal succeeded, and the answer to part of your question, is that they shifted all the funds that were used in the "war against drugs" into treatment issues, including providing work and housing. But that would mean shifting money in the US from police/military type of operations that have a lot of (particularly Republican) support to those related to public health areas which have been continually cut, federal and state and local, for many years.
12
If 75,000 residents are addicts and only some 200 die of overdose, it means that Philadelphia's DPH is doing a good job saving lives
10
I particularly revile drug dealers who ship their poisons from the labs outside the US. I want to scream to our own residents, "Don't give them any money." Is going cold turkey worse than living in hell for many years? I'm fortunate not to have a propensity for addiction so I can't judge. I had oxycodone, unrequested after two ortho surgeries, and it was the only painkiller I ever took that worked and I couldn't get it prescribed a few years later for bilateral knee replacement. Extra Strength Tylenol and Tramadol did little and I was resentful I was denied because others abuse it.
18
@Geraldine Conrad
I agree, there are a lot of people with terrible pain conditions who went from being productive members of society with treatment to bed ridden people on disability once their doctors were forced to stop writing prescriptions. It's a myth that everyone who gets an opioid prescription turns into a drug addict, only a small percentage of people with addictive tendencies are at risk. These same people would have been alcoholics or using other drugs in previous generations. The myth persists that normal people are powerless against becoming addicted to codeine because this particular drug epidemic happens to afflict white people, and our society has more compassion to them. I've had trouble getting refills of psychiatric meds lately too because those are getting abused. It's too bad there's no blood test to determine who is at risk of developing an addiction to allow the rest of us treatment.
6
Heroin dealers are muderers and should be treated as such.
Zero tolerance for the sale or possesion of heroin.
If there were no heroin, there would be no heroin addicts.
I'm not being totally uncompassionate. My son was addicted to heroin after oxycodone for a broken shoulder. He went through cold-turkey withdrawl by choice. He knows full well what any future use of heroin would involve.
Eventually, if the addicts do not accept the offer of help, then they have made their choice. It's their life.
6
Exemplary journalism. Congratulations.
16
I ride past the Frankford underpass every morning on my wya to work. It is so sad. It has become a community; with tents and beds and other pieces of furniture.
7
The USA is done. These people are the victims of a society without education, employment and health care services. It is horrible. Years ago I helped a friend clean out a property their family still owned in Kensington and it was frightening on a sunny Sunday afternoon with a group of powerful types to go down there. The US has historically eaten up and spat out its migrants and poor. Our country should have been better organised and managed by now but sadly it has not learned to be a humane decent place.
I, a grandchild of Ucranian migrants who suffered ridiculous young deaths 81 yrs ago, left the US 14.5 years ago for a more equitable country which quite ironically to viewers of US news media I have found working/living in MX, a country with universal health care of the more or less German model. My brother sets up companies in Asia and lives there. Another colleague decamped to Vancouver. We are all voting citizens of the US who participate and remain citizens even as we are legal residents of countries which are serious about their quality of life. The US overall offers little hope now. Needs to reverse many courses in favor of education, public health, equality of opportunity and productive employment.
21
I went to rehab in 1988. I remember vaguely the leader of our program saying that of the 50 people I was there with, only 5% would be sober in one year. The statistic dropped in half for five years. After two years, I believe there was one other person and myself still sober. I have since lost track of him, but hold out hope that I am not the only one still sober almost 30 years later. Addiction is hard. It's a daily battle, and if you don't do a lot of intense personal work all the rehab in the world won't work. Articles like this are devastatingly sad. I'm reminded to be ever grateful and also compassionate. Nobody wants that life.
43
@Robin Oh
You are a great person, Robin.
I cannot even imagine the strength needed to accomplish something like that.
All the best to you and all the people you love.
2
Devastating. As a San Franciscan you can see this same pandemic rising and rising. We keep focusing on the economic challenge and lack of housing, but clearly the biggest element is that in our city we have the same drug eco-system. Users and suppliers nearby and the means to acquire small sums of money to feed the cycle, thru panhandling and unrelenting petty theft. Philadelphia's example shows there is no simple, unifying solution. All I can imagine is some mass medical fix. Someway to immunize addicts so that they can no longer get high and end the cycle. If nothing is done at some point there will be a massive backlash and forced treatment that will place civil liberties in danger.
13
I think a large number of these people should be legally committed. They have no ability to make decisions or care for themselves. They need to be forced via committal into treatment and eventually apartments and hopefully some cure. Maybe they need lifelong supportive communities.
The residents of these communities are owed strong policing.
22
@David
Forced treatment. More policing. Livelong supportive communities.
All fine ideas, but all require funding. So far, the current administration has failed to address the drug epidemic.
All the funding that could have gone for David's ideas have gone instead to tax refunds for already-profitable corporations, travel and rallies for the president, a pointless trip to Africa for his first lady, and waste and corruption on the part of his appointees. And billions more are proposed for a wall.
17
If you could see inside people's minds you would, in many cases, never stop crying. Whether by way of trauma, or some genetic cruelty, some people are shackled with a life-wrecking primary drive: GET ME OUT OF HERE. The drugs are being used because the drugs work.
18
@Mark Farr - the insides of their minds
Yes, I'm sure you are correct. Nonetheless, their actions have huge negative repercussions on our entire society, and in fact, on people all around the world. (See my comment below regarding how their money finances terror.)
Consequently, society must protect itself from them. The answer is to institutionalize them, by force if necessary, put them through detox regimes, and make sure they don't return to drugs. Prisons are not the answer, nor is the answer to abandon them on the streets. We need modern asylums, well funded, and operating with the best current medicine can offer.
9
I happened to catch an episode of the TV show "Cold Case," which was set in Philadelphia. The premise, as you can imagine, was cops re-opening old cases.
In this one episode from 2003, they talked about a homicide in Kensington that happened in 1990 and how even then the area wash awash in addicts and prostitutes.
4
@Third.coast -
I enjoy watching old shows too. Just last night I watched an episode of Hawaii 5-0 from 1970 that focused on the damage done by heroin.
It's absurd and inexcusable that we are still struggling with this 48 years later.
6
Trapped by the 'Walmart of Heroin'...and winter will soon be here.
2
For any of the addicts described, their Community is a big part of why they can’t recover. ‘It’s where I belong’, one woman is quoted as saying. People yearn for community, and as long as they are doing drugs, they have a place to belong.
How do you fight that?
23
@Carmine -
"community" ... that was my brother. He had a loving family ready to help him. But he preferred to sleep on the street with his buddies and shoot up. We tried for 25 years to help him. But he didn't really want it. He overdosed at 40. That was a long time ago, long before the whole prescription opioid issue. He got introduced to alcohol by "friends" when he was 15 and harder stuff soon after.
7
@Carmine
Calling the groups who have taken over the tunnels “communities” is part of the problem. For example the Emerald St tunnel - the worse of the 2 left - is a mob of lawless, scheming, low bottom dope fiends, not by any accurate definition a “community.” Call them what they really are, stop coddling them and enforce the law.
6
@Carmine
This is why AA works so well. People have a community of supporters who understand what they're going through. They feel accountable to each other. I'm sure it's similar in narcotics anonymous and rehabs, but the drug is just self medicating other trauma's or mental illnesses. Most people need intensive therapy to recover (as well as opportunities for jobs and housing to look forward to as a reward for sobriety).
1
umm the inline ad is for "black opium". That says a lot about our culture and what we think is attractive.
8
New York times always has the most unfortunate inline juxtapositions. I saw an article on the cramped quarters of migrant boats and in the middle of it: an ad for a $50k “Yacht Master” Rolex. That’s all I can remember from the article.
9
So many commenters here have the answer to the problem of heroin addiction! Please, run for office, win, and put your plan into action despite opposition, since the current crop of mayors and governors are doing do poorly. Or become an advocate to bring about change following your recommended solution.
Armchair quarterbacking is much easier, ay?
1
@Iam 2
I'm sure you realize you are armchair quarterbacking their armchair quarterbacking, right?
20
Is there someone who starts heroin who doesn’t know this will happen?
14
Yes..... everyone of the addicts believe this won’t happen.
Don’t remember his name in the article...... but remember?.....
“ don’t worry about me, I’m just here for the summer, I only do $20 a day”?
13
@Mark Kircher There's another article in today's paper about the tragic death of a young woman named Lyric. It's possible she died of a drug overdose. Her parents comment about her drug usage? She wasn't an addict. She just partied. No one can "just party" with drugs like cocaine or heroin. It will lead to addiction. I'm sure everyone starts out thinking they are the one person who won't get addicted. Maybe there's an occasional person who doesn't. But, it's not worth the risk. Parents and family members who see drug usage must stop looking the other way and say they're just partying or experimenting. I know it's impossible to make someone quit but you can try to stop it before it becomes something other than partying. There's a myth going around that "all kids" get drunk in high school or try drugs. It's just not true. Any intoxicant is dangerous when one is not old enough to take the proper care.
4
@Jim G Most users start heroin long after they’ve become addicted to the pills prescribed by their doctors. It’s already happened to them.
2
“They eat, like, six times a day,” Nancy said. “They eat more than I do. They get coffee and doughnuts in the morning. They brought them tents and blankets. Their drug dealer is two blocks away.”
“They have no reason to go when everyone is giving them absolutely everything,” Dawn said"
Such is the idiocy of the current generation where compassion has overwhelmed wisdom and the whole of society must suffer from the conditions created by the 'virtuous' social justice warriors.In saner past times, these people were left to their own devices and their populations kept themselves from exploding to the numbers of today.
12
@mark
What in the world are you talking about?
6
DW, Marks argument is simple. Go to a public park, and you will see a sign that says "Don't feed the geese" or some such. He is making the "Don't feed the geese" argument.
It's a harsh argument, but there is some merit. It's the same reason that New Yorker's don't hand cash to panhandlers.
5
@DW
He’s seems to be saying that it’s better to ignore the addicts and homeless because providing them with care and access to resources just keeps them around longer. He prefers they be left alone, imagining that they’ll die and that the problem will maybe die with them.
According to him, the concept of a compassionate society that tries to address its blind spots was invented by the current generation of 18-34-year-olds in this modern moment, and really only amounts to virtue signalling. He accuses this generation of wielding a political and social power that overwhelms and oppresses the wiser, saner majority of Americans.
2
Christ during his ministry healed the sick and expects his flock to do the same, which we should do. But at what price? Some men you cannot reach. And those families, doing it right, but living in these neighborhoods deserve our help more than those drug addicts.
10
One short-term fix (no pun intended) for Kensington might be to install vandalism-resistant speakers that play Elgar's Lux Aeterna and the Ray Conniff version of Aquarela do Brasil. (Audio clips below.)
Long-term, American states should take a look at how Portugal handled drug use.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwdeqVmXlHk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTVN3tFZ3qI
5
Stop the flow of heroin. Build secured sites for rehab, nobody gets out until clean. Guard the place. If your found to be an addict your going in. Round them up. Treat people humanly. But first you've got to establish control or you will never solve this.
13
@patriotI agree that makes sense on the surface, but are we truly, finally willing to go there? We are in fact talking about some kind of marshall law and what we are looking at is something like concentration camps for treatment. It's not that no one has thought of this, but are we willing to become the kind of society that goes that far? In San Francisco we have a new law to force conservatorship on addicts and the mentally ill, but even that can only be used in a few cases because of the law. What you propose if far more than that. There is no easy solution to this.
4
This has become a lifestyle choice for these people. It looks cool so they try it and become part of the pack. Some get smart and stop using and others will die. But hey don't they look cool when they are high. It is all a choice at a certain point.
And yes I have been effected by this recent life style choice. So I know of what I speak.
11
@D. Doodle Wow. Your tone is inhumanely callous. Choosing heroin addiction to look cool? I live at the edge of Fishtown, about a mile away from Kensington & Sommerset. I've had the opportunity to meet several from the encampments as they migrated to our neighborhood looking for refuge in cleaner nearby doorways and open lots, including the one next to the pizzeria I own. We feed some. Some proudly use what money they have to buy pizza. They've come from diverse backgrounds and age groups. To a person, they share stories about having moved from prescribed drug use or PTSD or mental health issues to addiction. While some choose to live on the street out of fear of safety or withdrawal, none I've met began their horrific journeys to "look cool." They certainly don't view themselves as cool, being filthy and dirty and ashamed of their addiction and predicament. Frankly, it's facing dignity-denying views like yours that prevent many from having the courage to try to become sober. Views like yours only add to their shame and sense of alienation
10
Thank you!
"We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. ....
The trunk of the car looked like a mobile police narcotics lab. We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. ....
The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. And I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon."
--- Hunter S. Thompson, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."
This great novel was written in 1971, and we’re right back where we started from, except much worse.
11
The NY Times does in-depth profiles on addiction and drug abuse every couple of weeks. Very informative. But they never do features on the other half of this problem.
The money spent by addicts on heroin and coke ends up in the coffers of the Taliban (world's largest heroin producer) and the central American drug cartels. These are among the most vicious criminal organizations on the planet. The Taliban is notorious, of course, for killing schoolgirls for the simple reason that these girls desire an education. The central American cartels rape and murder anyone that crosses their paths. They also corrupt police forces and politicians with their bribes.
All this, the guns, ammunition, bribes, is paid for by the $$$ that American drug addicts spend on their fixes. The addicts are financing these crimes. They are directly complicit.
I wish the NY Times would do in-depth features on the girls and women across central America and in Afghanistan, whose rapes and murders were financed by American dollars. I've been asking for quite a while. So far ... no response.
37
@J Jencks Yes, follow the money. The US "defense industry" and DEA has been a huge weapons supplier and finance tool/partner of this industry for years. And who finances the Afghanistan heroin industry, with the aiding and abetting of whom - that would be us taxpayers in the USA, our corrupt institutions and industries. There is simply no way these drugs can arrive so efficiently without "collusion".
7
@Jacqueline
The world is a much better place with you still in it!
3
At the expense of sounding insensitive, why not help the people that are living in the area. Everything else has failed the sale of drugs is out in the open they should start hammering the drug dealers . We can't arrest ourselves out of this problem, but the residents deserve that from city government.
12
Nixon's "War on Drugs" was lost in the last century, now with major drug companies pushing "legal" drugs, it's time to legalize and tax this industry, making it safer for the user, and eliminating the criminal element both here in the US, and South America.
9
Strange that the massive gentrification happening in Kensington (including an influx of residents from nyc) wasn't mentioned here. There are new houses on every block, lots of families with young kids and a vibrant creative community. The neighborhood is a study in contrasts with death and birth playing out side by side.
10
That is East Kensington that the gentrification is happening. West Kensington is a whole different story.
9
@Rich Mitchell
the gentrified areas are creeping northwards and eventually will meet the drug areas.
1
While I disagree nearly all of the time with politics of this paper, it is work like this that makes it worth reading. I live on the other side of the Keystone state and we have our drug problems here too. But I cannot think of any place in Pittsburgh that remotely resembles this. My heart breaks for these people. We know they don't want this life. Science needs to find a way to reverse addition but that may never be possible.
12
@Alan - Have hope. It is possible. Many good minds are at work on solutions and some effective solutions already exist (link below).
There are 2 issues that add to the challenge.
1. Some people simply don't want to change or be treated. What do we do about that? It's a big discussion on its own.
2. How do we finance treatment for those who want it but can't afford it.
For those who want it and can afford it, there are solutions available. Among the comments on this article are several by people who overcame heroin addiction.
https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/heroin/what-are-...
1
Many people interviewed first became dependent on prescription opioids. I'm a doctor working in New Zealand, and obviously lack understanding of some of complexities of the issue in US. However, I believe change in prescribing habits may be part of the solution, as opioid addiction on this scale appears to be an issue predominantly in the US.
In New Zealand relatively few patients are given large prescriptions of medications like oxycontin and morphine. Following surgery after which high levels of post operative pain are expected, a few day's worth may be given. From reading other NYT articles, I have the impression that more addictive medications such as oxycontin are prescribed in US, when anti inflammatories or tramadol would be given in New Zealand.
41
@Polly
I think it is changing, and just recently. My dad just had knee replacement surgery 1 month ago, and they gave him 3 days worth of hydrocodone, 18 pills, 5 mg (with no refills). About 2 years ago my aunt had an ankle replacement surgery and they gave her a whole bottle of oxycodone. They don't even ask if you want them, they just hand them out.
I got percocet when I had my wisdom teeth out. It is pretty crazy.
4
@Polly Yes!! I just had abdominal surgery and spent 3 days in the hospital, and my post surgery pain relief was Tramadol. This was my choice. I didn’t want the opioids for obvious reasons, and the Tramadol did the job incredibly well! Hopefully this trend will continue here.
3
@Polly
Limiting prescriptions may help a little. But the fact is that we go through one drug crisis after another, and we can't blame the doctors or the drug companies for every single one. We don't just have an opioid problem; we have a meth problem. And a crack problem. And an alcohol problem.
People will do just about anything for escape, including sniffing glue.
8
Devastating article...the comments section - WOW. My sister overdosed in an abandoned building in Kensington. She was in and out of rehab many times, incarcerated (still able to get her fix in jail). At the time she overdosed, she was clean and sober for 14 months. Did she chose to be a heroin addict - for sure not. Did she want to get clean - for sure yes. For my sister, the issue was always after care. If she was lucky, she would get 2-4 weeks in treatment. It was what came after that treatment when everything would fall apart. The halfway houses in Kensington? Or in some other drug-infested area? My sister was sexually abused as a young girl by our grandfather, neglected by our parents, eating disorder by 13. At 27 had major surgery and that is when opioids came into the picture...Downhill from there.
How can you treat the addict without dealing with the root cause(s)? My sister needed to have a safe place to live and not just for 2 weeks. I believe if she could have been in the mountains or someplace remote and lived for 1 or 2 yrs to rewire/reprogram her brain - she may have had a chance, maybe not. All of the money the city spent on prosecuting my sister for possession, prostitution and who knows what - that was the money that could have been allocated to housing and therapy for as long as needed.
I don't claim to know all the issues, this is just one brother's story of a sister he loved and watched die a slow and horrible death. Be kind people!
177
I'm so sorry for your loss. My sister died from an overdose as well. Couldn't agree more with your comment.
35
This comment made me cry. So sorry for your pain.
9
@Ana
Again, society exacts a social justice, because we've stigmatized being an addict, yet we don't treat alcoholics that way. Once you wear the scarlet A, it will be almost if not impossible to find a job, that pays a livable wage. So once they get out of rehab, what are they doing back too, the same depressing life, filled with hopelessness, desperation, the feeling of no way out to something better.
If you loos at the statistical data from the depression era, you see a spike in alcoholism. Which is directly related to the security or lack of it, one feels in their lives.
No one wakes up one day and says, you know, I think I WANT to be a junkie, I think I'm going to try it just to see what it "feels" like. They get stuck, once the opiate genie is out of the bottle, it like alcohol takes away any problems the user has, self medicating as it's called.
4
Reading this article, takes me back to several documentaries made by USA supported agencies. These so called “news organizations” experts in going around the world showing the misery, the ones living on the fringes of society. I have never seen a documentary about this area, I wonder why? Although, I have seen many by USA based “agencies” about drug users and drug infested areas in Afghanistan, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Pakistan, and some European areas. We are so good showing how bad are the others, although we tend to carefully hide our dirty laundry.
11
Actually, I’ve seen two excellent documentaries about the drug epidemic in the US, “Heroin(e)” and “Heroin: Cape Cod, USA”.
@RBR
Then you don't have cable, because there have been many, many documentaries about the opioid problem in this country.
https://www.pbs.org/video/dealing-addiction-b38jtd/
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/chasing-heroin/
https://www.pbs.org/.../opioid-addiction-biggest-drug-epidemic-u-s-histo...
What part of knowing what you're talking about before you speak, are you missing.
1
How does it feel to talk to people like that? You feeling good about yourself right now?
2
Jim Kenney is an empty suit who is known as our chief panderer. He takes steps without ever understanding the consequences. What did he think would happen when the closed down El Campamento? They just migrated to the neighborhoods. As with the majority of his decisions they just lead to lowering the quality of life for the tax paying citizens of this city. Many people complained about Mayor Nutter but at least the man was intelligent and competent. We're in for a long sad ride with Kenney at the helm. I wish we could have Ed Rendell back, as crooked as he was, he knew how to get the job done.
10
@Joe
And what is that "job" getting done. Sure you can treat the symptom, but your not curing the causation of this epidemic.
1
I was a teenager all through Rendell’s tenure. While Center City was resurrected from morbidity, which he should absolutely take credit for and glory in that accomplishment, the Badlands was America’s largest open air drug market.
This isn’t some new issue for Philadelphia. I lost plenty of friends in the 90’s to heroin because out of nowhere, the heroin you could cop along the el was pure enough to snort.
Our current mayor inherited an entire history, a culture, an ecological system of dysfunction. Which good ol Eddie straight up ignored for his two terms in office.
4
@Joe
Wouldn’t have these tunnel mobs if Frank Rizzo was Mayor
This is an overdue piece on an absolute scourge on our city and ongoing tragedy. Hellish human suffering depicted here. Let’s never lose sight of that.
The causes are many, but at the top is “free market” economics extended into the social vision of neoliberalism. Civilization after all just protects the weak, so this “philosophy” states. Corporate drug dealers maximizing profit and lobbying for less tax, regulation and social responsibility. Better to decrease the surplus population, right Mr. Scrooge?
Solving this permanently is theoretically simple: egalitarian economics and drug legalization.
The problem cuts across race and class and location. We used to live near a public health clinic in West Philly and occasionally found feces and needles and piles of emptied out blunt tobacco on our front steps. On the corner of Walnut and 40th at the edge of Penn’s campus is a McDonald’s whose bathroom serves as a favorite spot for shooting up. At the 40th el there’s always a posse of cops and the usual people consumed by these diseases, stumbling at midday. This is the same el that curls up past center city along 95 from Fishtown up through Kensington to Frankford, so there is commuting between these places.
When covering these problems, a line between voyeurism and scientific description can be crossed. The proverbial scene of a car crash you can’t look away from. This piece crosses that line too much, I think. I would have preferred more history, policy and stats.
16
@A Prof
Policy and stats are great, but sometimes those stats and policies, aren't what spurs people into action. Sometimes pulling back the curtain, and seeing human wreckage caused by corporations and the governments malfeasance.
They've opened the spigot of tax payers money that freely flows into the pockets of the rich, corporations, and congress. They bear the responsibility of this catastrophe. Yet, we fail as citizens to hold them to account, to hold corporations to account.
As I said earlier, if this was happening on the porches of the rich in the Hampton's rest assured, the government would provide untold tax dollars.
13
@A Prof:
"Solving this permanently is theoretically simple: egalitarian economics and drug legalization."
That would be simple? I think not.
2
It is certainly theoretically simple as stated. Making the actual change in the world is the difficult, if not impossible, part.
2
Why not do the one thing that works: Give everyone Subutex
5
@James Diamond
Apparently you didn't read the article, many people used Suboxone to try and get off of drugs. The problem is, the issues that drove them to self medicate still exist. And what employer is going to give them a job, most have a criminal record, and society extracts more from them in term of denying gameful employment, which would go along way restoring them to humanity.
1
It should be made readily available for everyone who needs it -- but keep in mind that everyone is not committed to stopping permanently. They might curse their addiction, but they want the relief or high that they get from the drug.
The problem is, maintaining a prescription to suboxone costs a small fortune!! Monthly doctors visits to refill usually cost between $100 - $500 per appointment and then the prescription is at least $100/month, usually way more. Insurance only covers it for detox, not long term maintenance and doctors know patients need it so they charge premiums for the appointments. Otherwise it’s a great solution because IT WORKS!
2
Curious if Iraq war veterans are more likely to become addicted to opiods. Avoiding unnecessary wars can go a long way in preventing future generations of addicts.
39
Every major city has a place like Philly. The good news here in Boston is that we have shelter space so that they are not set up in tents. To completely negate the possible recovery process that can and does occur while one is incarcerated is short sighted. I agree with the idea if you get Narcan'd then you will also be provided a 21 day program, non negotiable. The best outcomes are when the patient has some skin in the game. The idea of MAT is also short sighted. These medications may be a profit based way to institutionalize social control over a population that has lost its way. People do in fact recover, we seem to have lost this reality as we tout the idea of drug legalization and safe injection sites...which are essentially hospice care for the dying
11
@brianne fitz
This will sound sarcastic, but it isn't meant that way: for some people. "hospice" - in the from of a clean space to live and sleep - is better that having addicts living in squalor as shown. Even those who are not going to find recovery should be treated humanely.
And that would also give those neighborhoods a better quality of life: why should people - just because they have less income - be forced to walk through this desolation, or have their children see it, day in and day out?
2
If this isn’t a reason to legalize heroin then there is none!
We can’t even educate our children here is Philly, how will there be plans for new programs for addicts?
We have potholes, water main leaks, gas leaks, falling overpasses and are a completely run down old city that is probably beyond the point of repair at this point without massive cash infusion.
Let these opioid addicts have their opioids as some countries in Europe do, keep them in an area that is habitable, and let them get high. That is the most humane approach I can see.
That is the most humane and reasonable approach in my opinion.
24
@Nancy Becker Do what? I don't understand the logic in your position? The city is falling apart so just make heroin legal and let them have the area? You speak of heroin addiction as if were a lifestyle choice, a religion, a movement.
Should we be incarcerating these people? No, but to be so foolish as to say "make it legal and let them have the area" is to completely miss the point that this is a disease, an epidemic, with cartels profiting off the demise of many.
10
@Nancy Becker
I agree with Nancy. I'd go as far as making drugs legal and free for those that want it. If you don't have the will to lead a productive, sober life then don't be a burden on society. I'd park those somewhere out of sight and away from where they can't harm, be a burden, and soil neighborhoods. I'd rather spend the money wasted on these people on more worthwhile causes--and there are plenty of such causes.
To be clear: I'd still help those addicts that really want to change. I'd be for programs that are meaningful and proven to help those that truly want it.
9
@Frankie I think we have a problem with our perception of drug users. Heroin isn't a casual use drug. It completely hijacks the brain. It really doesn't matter how someone got into it, it's about how they get out of it. And when your mind is being controlled by a substance that literally rewires your neuropathways, and you don't have the financial resources for meaningful care, then it shouldn't surprise anyone that its just easier to be stuck.
We don't even regulate treatment centers in this country. Which means you or I could open up a fraudulent center and charge people thousands of dollars while only providing them with meaningless platitudes.
So is the solution really to make it legal and to put "those people" to the side? It sounds like you are describing some sort of sanctuary city for drug users? As if it would somehow financially sustain itself and people wouldn't venture out to find financial resources, i.e. commit crimes in "safe zones."
Heroin is not like any other drug out there. Because of the very fact that it controls your brain and kills your body if you go cold turkey.
These are healthy conversations that we all need to be having.
We must not let law enforcement punish drug dealers. I didn’t agree with many of Obama’s ideas but I did agree with releasing drug dealers and allowing the free flow of drugs without criminalization. If people want to ruin their lives by taking drugs that is their business.
8
@Shamrock
So how do they pay for these drugs, who pays for their bad choices. Letting someone sit around shooting heroin, or doing meth, or crack, who pays the medical costs some of them do live long enough to realize the damage they've done to themselves.
Being a drug addict has societal consequences, it's not without it's victims, hard working people who aren't addicted to drugs, has to deal with the human waste, fecal and otherwise, the garbage, the diseases etc.
You do know that cholera, is caused by unsanitary conditions, and once cholera breaks out, people die very quickly, and it even spreads to people who aren't even in the vicinity. And once you have symptoms, it's too late, you're more than likely going to die.
People that advocate for the legalization of these kinds of drugs won't be the ones dealing with drug addicts in their front yard. I have a sneaky feeling that those that advocate for legalization heroin, think that they won't be the ones dealing with the petty theft, violence, needles in their front yards, because if people like you were the ones dealing with those things needles, theft, potential violence, would feel a whole lot different if they were sitting on YOUR front porch.
2
@Shamrock Look, I could live with some de-criminalized drugs. But then the strength, purity and distribution need be regulated. I know that the counter argument is that than it helps corporations. But turn the dealers loose? No Way.
1
As someone who struggled with alcohol abuse, I understand the addictive brain and the relentless need to just feel high. These addicts need help and it seems like the city has done a lot to intervene.
I work as a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) for children in foster care. I currently have two sisters assigned to me. Their biological mom in a heroin addict. When I first met them, she had completed inpatient rehab, was in outpatient and was slowly piecing things together. But then it all fell apart, not once, but twice.
The older sister is 13 and understands what is happening with her mother. She is angry. She has been abandoned and she was so proud of her mother when she was getting clean. There are laws in Family Court and if the mother doesn't have custody of her kids after a certain period of time, she can lose them.
Why am I writing about this? It's not only the addicts lives who are being ruined, but also the family members. The children and extended family members. Two women in the article are cited as having children. One stated her son is better off without her. Unfortunately, she cannot even imagine being in his mind of having a mother who is a heroin addict.
The Aunt who is currently raising my two charges watched her sister go through the same thing. Addicted to heroin, giving birth to children, losing them, re-gaining them, a cycle that hasn't stopped for this family.
96
@LM - "It's not only the addicts lives who are being ruined..."
And it extends far beyond the family. No one ever seems to talk about the $$$ addicts spend for their fixes. The Taliban is the world's largest producer of heroin. The viciously criminal cartels of central America produce most of the cocaine.
When American addicts buy their fixes, that's where their money goes. It funds the rapes and murders of women across central America. It funds the murders of Afghan schoolgirls.
We need to face this.
25
@LM
As a Court Appointed Special Advocate, are you supposed to be sharing about your clients, and in detail. even if you don't identify them by name, and haven't used your full name ?
Are you not bound by confidentiality?
Also, while you have shared about the effects of addiction on family members, and have gone into detail regarding your clients, you have omitted the effect of your own alcohol abuse on your family members, and others in your life, while it surely did affect others.
8
@J Jencks
ISIS and the Taliban don't need to hijack aircraft, or bomb us to terrorize and destroy our country.All they need to do is keep america flush with dope.
And part of the cycle of addiction especially to heroin or opiates in general, is it does rewire the brain, which is what causes the fiending behavior that addicts do. Most addicts spend 95% of their time trying to find and pay for their drugs, and 5% doing them.
This rewired brain, has just recently been discovered, which is what makes opiates so dangerous, as they chase that high they got the first time they did opiates. Most of us have had opiates in our lives, tooth pain, post op pain, so we know that euphoric feeling that they give you, your troubles just slip away, alcoholics drink for the same reasons.
Most addicts either have no coping skills, or have lost the ability to cope with life, and it's setbacks and disappointments. it's those skills that need to be relearned, that and giving them a reason to live, maybe a job, that will help them get their self esteem back.
3
I'd be willing to bet that within days (at most), this place was shut down.
I'd also say another one popped up in its stead.
It always happens.
Yes, I do know; I was a former heroin user (have been in methadone, which saved my life).
10
@U.N. Owen
But aren't you trading one drug for another, you have simply moved to a totally synthetic opioid that the Germans crated during WWII because no one would sell them opium to make morphine for their combat wounds. Methadone is water soluble so it dissolves in solution.
But your not fixing the problem that drove you to opiates.
‘This place’ is an entire zip code.
@U.N. Owen
You're correct. It's a game of whack-a-mole.
1
There is an excellent treatment called Vivitrol which is Naltrexone given as an injection every month. It blocks the pleasurable effect of opioids. There should be programs set up for these injections after a taper with Suboxone.
7
Works for some, but it doesn't stop the most desperate from continuing to hopelessly shoot up until... the end
I am always irritated when I hear blame big pharma and doctors who prescribe way too much or too many narcotics. People don't keep taking something because they hate how it makes them feel. Most people seem to hate the way pain killers make them feel. They won't become addicts. The few who enjoy the feeling they get might go on to becoming addicts. it's not one pain killer =instant addiction there has to be a good feeling and not everyone or even most people get that. Unfortunately physicians don't seem to be aware of this so people with pain who need pain killers are denied them or get treated like addicts and their pain is ignored.
17
@cat lover
No its not one pain pill and viola, your an addict. But big pharma created Oxycontin,
Doctors were told that with Oxycontin, the chances of addiction are much lower than with other opiates i.e. Percocet, which is a brand name for Oxycodone, Vicodin AKA Hydrocodone for example, because you had to dispense more with those because they are short acting, so the body metabolizes it faster. Consequently, you have to re-dose more often to achieve pain relief, at least that was the theory. Add to that the incentive paid to doctors.
In 2001 alone, Purdue Pharma L.P. spent $200 million in an array of approaches to market and promote OxyContin. One of the cornerstones of Purdue's marketing plan was the use of sophisticated marketing data to influence physicians’ prescribing. Drug companies compile prescriber profiles on individual physicians—detailing the prescribing patterns of physicians nationwide—in an effort to influence doctors’ prescribing habits. Through these profiles, a drug company can identify the highest and lowest prescribers of particular drugs in a single zip code, county, state, or the entire country. One of the critical foundations of Purdue's marketing plan for OxyContin was to target the physicians who were the highest prescribers for opioids across the country.
You should know more before you run off and jump in the shallow end of the pool, and get irritated for no reason.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2622774/
5
The issue of blame for the fact of addiction is separate from the issue of how to deal with people in addiction's grip. Purdue Pharma, doctors, and dealers need to be held responsible, for sure. But addicts are not well-served by all this toleration (never mind their families, friends, and neighbors). Addicts OD repeatedly. The taxpayers are covering their Narcan and they get to decline treatment and go get high again? That's not right. Yeah, they are under the power of the heroin molecule, which is precisely why it shouldn't be up to the addict to choose. I don't see why that should be tolerated. Safe injection site? Maybe. Revived by Narcan? 21-day mandatory locked facility drug treatment. Life skills, job skills, chores, a schedule.
15
@Miriam
That's what I've been saying, one lady posted how irritated she get's when Drs are to blame. Well they carry some of the blame, not all doctors to be sure, but Purdue had an algorithm since 2001 to ID Drs who were big prescribers of opioids.
But it's not all their fault, on one hand they were getting the blame for UNDER prescribing for pain. Purdue comes out with a far more potent drug, that they claim used have a much smaller chance of getting addicted, and the gave Drs big fat bonuses for prescribing Oxycontin.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2622774/
1
MANDATORY treatment of both addiction and mental illness must be adopted. Medications that reduce cravings already exist in injectable formulations that last a month. Others could be developed. But I'm afraid that the ACLU types will fight tooth and nail to prevent this.
13
@Brian - I agree with mandatory treatment. But I quibble with your "ACLU types". I don't see the GOP leadership lining up to legislate and fund the treatment centers that would be necessary for what you propose. I wish they would. Instead, the addicts are either ignored or thrown into prisons where they get no treatment at all.
14
@Brian
"The ACLU types"? What? You mean liberals?
I don't see how this could come as a surprise to you, but it's precisely liberals who have been agitating -- for decades -- for decrimininalization of drugs, clean needle exchange, homeless services, and treatment treatment treatment for addiction and mental illness.
11
@Lisa Simeone
https://mentalillnesspolicy.org/myths/aclu-mental-health-liberties.html
copy and paste this link
Thank you, Jennifer Percy, for doing the incredibly hard work it must have taken to write this article.
27
"Walmart of Heroin" is an unfortunate meme.
8
“D.E.A. focused on the high-level drug traffickers, not the guys working the streets, but the arrests did little to curb the growing demand.”
The article starts with a story of a veteran who first got addicted to Oxycontin and then got in trouble with fentanyl. When the DEA goes after the “high-level drug traffickers” why is it not Purdue Pharma producer of OxyContin or Ortho-McNeal one of several fentanyl manufactures?
28
Big Pharma has lobbyists in Washington. Small-time drug dealers don’t.
6
@Leo
They can manufacture it. If doctors don't prescribe it, then patients wouldn't get it.
Or am I missing something?
1
She used heroine through the entire 9 month pregnancy?
Her son IS better off without her, I agree.
Some people don't deserve the gift of life. Junkies are a tough group to muster sympathy for.
15
Perhaps getting to know why folks become addicted in the first place might expand your sympathy.
9
She used heroine through the entire 9 month pregnancy because she is an addict . My mother "used" Diethlystilbesterol (DES) through FOUR pregnancies, as prescribed by her doctor, and as approved by the F.D.A., as did millions of pregnant women in the United States, Eli Lilly knew that DES caused cancer in those who were exposed to DES in utero, but didn't care.Thousands of "DES Daughters" have died due to cancers that were caused by DES exposure. Thousands more have or will develop cancer, are infertile, have "T-shaped" uteruses, & have had miscarriages & /or stillborn babies. These are just some of the ill effects of DES exposure.
One of my sisters has DES induced breast cancer, & is infertile. My other sister has a T-shaped uterus, had multiple miscarriages and gave birth to a full term stillborn baby. My mother and sister took every precaution that any caring, educated pregnant woman takes while pregnant, to protect their unborn children.
It is the Eli Lilly executives who killed my sister's unborn babies, has killed thousands of DES daughters, will kill more ,and may kill the DES grandchildren and great-grandchildren of those who were able to have children.
Who is more culpable for harm to an unborn child :The pharmaceutical companies that know that their medications place unborn babies at risk for cancer, in the case of Eli Lilly, or are addictive, in the case of Purdue Pharma, or the heroin addict who takes heroin while pregnant as a result ?
9
@There
Yeah, if you're the Tin Man.
1
The reason why it’s an ‘opioid crisis’ is that the users are white. When I was a kid in the South Bronx, the users were black and Puerto Rican. White sentiment at the time was to lock them up and throw the key away. To quote Justice Kavanaugh, “what goes around comes around.” White junkies? What is America coming to?
41
@Walter
I definitely think the laws should be enforced and the mobs setting up tents should be locked up. And I’m white.
2
I'm 26, I got clean a few years ago as did my partner, who was in worse shape than I. I feel for these addicts, the friends we have that struggle and the families of those we know who have died.
But this is rediculous. At a certain point, you cannot help people who do not want to get help- EVEN if they think its hopeless. They know it's really not. It's just HARD. And the difference between hopeless and hard is work, which is what getting sober takes, any way you cut it.
How can we suport safe injection sites when the people who are shooting up know that they could OD anyway?
"Let's give you a safe place to overdose over and over and over again"- I can't take it seriously as a solution?
Eviction= ???
They are living, shooting and defecating on people's front steps.
I wish states and the federal government were strong enough to hold pharmaceuticals to account for what they've created, even if to hold them financially responsible if not morally.
But the work on the ground seems just as shoddy, because it's being motivated by a sad song-and-dance where everyone is supposed to accept and love these people and deny their own limits of empathy: we all have those limits. Mine is when you're shooting up on my steps. Again.
58
@Olivia Mata - Indeed the Pharmaceuticals need to be held to account. But they did not "create" this problem. It's been going on for many decades.
My brother got addicted in the late 1960s, courtesy of the neighborhood drug dealer. My brother never needed doctor-prescribed opioids to get him started. He overdosed in the mid-90s.
The prison system is not the solution. Nor is wringing our hands with Liberal guilt. They need to be incarcerated in institutions that FORCE them off drugs the right way, under medical supervision.
I'm glad to read you were able to free yourself from your situation voluntarily. That's exceptional.
Did you ever stop to think what happened to the money you gave your drug suppliers? What kind of drugs did you take? If it was heroin or cocaine then your money was used to finance the purchase of weapons and ammunition by groups such as the Taliban and the central American drug cartels.
9
Olivia congratulations. Every word you say is correct. Good luck in your life, you are extremely strong.
13
@J Jencks
My wife's bother is in and out of jail. He'd spend some years in jail, get free of drugs, then get out and within a week or two he's back in jail because he's caught doing drugs again. He also has some mental illness and refuses treatment for that. Since he's non-violent, he doesn't get put in some mental institution, but gets sent back to jail. Then the cycle repeats.
He's a decent and smart human being. He earned multiple diplomas while in jail.
2
I really don’t care to read any more fatuous, grossly biased and politicized comments blaming addiction on Democratic politicians or liberals. It’s very well documented that many ultra red states governed by conservative Republicans such as West Virginia, Oklahoma and Kentucky also have outrageously high rates of drug abuse and addiction.
48
@Jared
In fact, it is the red states that are permeated with meth labs and likely have more addicts per capita than the blue states.
12
Heroin was NEVER confined to poor black people. Heroin is a drug that human beings can get addicted to and have been getting addicted to for 2000 years in the form of opium. I dont know if anyone knows a lot of Chinese history, but opiates and humans have been together for a very long time.
The only drug that was ever really divided amongst race lines was crack. As a former addict, I've seen every color under the sun do heroin. White people and black people did cocaine. For a short period basically only black people did crack. Now though, everyone does crack. The crack epidemic raised the overdose death rate per 100,000 people from 1 to 2. It WAS racist to not have a response. Now, the overdose death rate during the opiate epidemic is over 16!
If you think that opiates are some sort of righteous comeuppance for white people, you are not only ignoring hundreds of thousands of POC who are addicts, but also you are a crass individual.
28
I just wanted to say thanks for all the nice replys to my comment. I read a lot of crass things in comment boards, and I wont lie I write some crass things as well. Mostly about things I dont understand fully.
One thing I do understand though is addiction. Addiction got me kicked out of MIT in my senior year, and addiction almost killed me 3 years after that. For 4.5 years I lived as an animal, and I still feel the dirt under my fingernails. I can still see the holes in my arms. I'll never be the same.
I'm so lucky. I have a friend who is now a pile of ash. That brown liquid in the syringe is so connected to death in my mind now that I cannot believe I put it inside of my body multiple times a day. But I did. And I did it so so many times.
If I had any advice to give to an addict who reads this, I'd say that the only way out is catharsis. Purge yourself of your hatred, because I know the person you hate most is yourself. Know that to continue onward is to die. Dwell on that fact. Decide to die, or decide to live. If you decide to die, remember to think about this again tomorrow. Think about it while you are high. Think about it before your stomach starts to hurt and you start to sweat. Think about this every single day that you can.
The other piece of advice I'd have is use clean needles. I used clean needles and today I am disease-free. Imagine that you will live beyond opiates. Using clean needles will help you believe that you can stop one day.
211
A young black male is arrested for smoking a joint and has to “check the box” the rest of his life. White people use drugs and are offered safe injection sites, etc., etc.
36
Thank god we have supervised injecting rooms in Australia.
5
@Dylan - where do the drugs come from that are used in these injection rooms? Does the Australian government control their production?
3
I notice that two of the women pictured have on shirts that spell out "LOVE." I hope they find the love they need and deserve. <3
11
The author deserves a Pulitzer Prize for this insightful and timely piece.
26
Reading the mean-spirited, punitive comments from readers and sense a real lack of understanding about opioids and addition. The morphine molecule is highly addictive. Your doctor prescribes it because you have a tooth implant, surgery, a broken are or cancer, or as the former soldier injured by an IED at the beginning of the and all at once you're addicted. NOT A CHOICE. This is science. The morphine molecule is addictive.
You want to blame someone, blame Perdue Pharma.
16
@Susie - some do get addicted due to medical issues. That's a big problem that must be dealt with.
But many, like my brother, did it all on their own, with the help of the neighborhood pusher.
My comments may sound punitive. And I do understand the reality of addiction to heroin. But despite that, society must protect itself from the destructive actions of the addicts. Prison is not the answer. But incarceration IS part of the answer. They need to be forcibly removed from society, placed into guarded asylums, where they can be forced to be treated for their addictions.
The reason is that their purchases of drugs contributes to the crimes committed by the major heroin and cocaine producers, the Taliban and the central American drug cartels. The money they spend on drugs is used by those groups to buy their guns and ammunition. The drug users are complicit in their crimes.
And by all means, let's go after Purdue PHarma as well.
2
@Susie I think that you're wrong about this. If you takes opiates fo a certain amount of time you will become physically addicted. However, all it takes to stop is to stop. Go through withdrawals. And then it's over. Unlike with alcohol, you won't die. People don't do things that they don't want to do.
3
Decriminalize drugs.
Buy up all the opium in the producing countries.
These two steps would put the cartels and other drug organizations out of business.
Track the chemicals used to manufacture drugs like the huge shipments from India to Mexico that are turned into meth.
Do everything possible to close the education and income gap.
Work to actualize our supposed American values.
11
@The Iconoclast
"Buy up all the opium in the producing countries."
You want to stop poppies from growing?
5
@The Iconoclast -
The Taliban is the largest producer of opium poppies. Are you suggesting our goviernment buy directly from them?
Once they sell their heroin, what do you suppose they do with the money?
Have you read the articles about Afghan schoolgirls being murdered simply because they want an education? It costs money to kill young girls. There are guns and bullets to buy.
No, legalization is only an option if the drugs are produced in highly regulated facilities here in the USA, BY the government, not for profit. And then it is also necessary to be even more strict and effective about stopping the illegal flow into our borders.
6
@The Iconoclast
Manufacture all the drugs and give it to addicts that don't want to quit freely.
This would drive the dealers and cartels out of business. ( How do you beat free? )
They should build a memorial, like the Vietnam Memorial, at Kensington. It simply lists the name and age of everyone who died from a drug overdose (unless the family objects.) There is room for new names to be added. A weekly memorial is held and the new names are read. There are flowers.
Across from the memorial, in the formerly most depressed area, is a courtyard. Next to the courtyard is a large, modern clinic. Inside, you can safely shoot up. It has clean, public bathrooms. It also has beds and showers.
But it’s easier to let them live under bridges, defecate in the street, and
die anonymously. The city can dispose of the bodies and the children and parents can pickup the dirty needles.
4
@Gus
Your solution seems to be perfect. But it will never be applied in the US.
Maybe because the addicts are considered not worth enough to spend much money on them.
It will never happen.
Not even in a Hollywood movie.
North Philly (I consider Kensington to be north philly) is the worst part of philly. Further, Philadelphia is the worst major city I have ever seen so this isn’t the least surprising.
There should be forced drug treatment and after repeated failures, forced incarceration.
I minimum security prison is more humane than living in the gutter as a drug addled mess.
10
Read Brian from Oakland’s post, it’s neither north Philly nor ne Philly, Port R /Ken /Frankford is its own area.
The 1960s Cultural Revolution. The gift that keeps on giving.
10
How do you make the connection between experimenting with pot in the 1960s and becoming addicted to pain meds in the 21st century? I'd love to see the evidence you have for that!
3
Uhhh, dude, that was about psychedelics and marijuana, not heroin. Check out the Wall Street types with their cocaine.
4
@JB
The wars started by The Neocon Revolution has been giving us far more heroin addicts than The 1960's Cultural Revolution's potheads.
7
Every major American city has a major Mexican cartel presence that controls the importation and distribution of heroin in the USA. Wake Up America Mexico is not our ally. BUILD THE WALL and stop the drugs.
7
We laughed when Nancy Reagan told us to "just say 'no'". So what have Nancy Reagan's critics come up with?
4
How about drug treatment centers, lean needle exchanges, and more expansive public health to address opiod addiction. Just saying No to an addiction is myopic, to say the least.
8
War on drugs?
Can someone remind me who won this war?
Or is it still ongoing?
4
The so-called “homeless tent camp” epidemic in the Bay Area and SoCal is actually this exact same situation. The police don’t do squat and the media is only barely beginning to report the facts versus the false “homeless epidemic” narrative.
So thank you for being part of that journey to truth. You can’t fix a disease that is misdiagnosed.
13
And I thought Rutland Vermont was one of the heroin capitals of the Northeast. I am about half-finished with "Naked Lunch" by William S. Birroughs. I have never read anything like this and looking at the photographs in this article it rings truer than I can believe. What a nightmare these people are living.
6
Just looking at these photos is enough to scare me into never using opioids!
10
@Miriam Conway And they call living more horribly than anyone - "getting high!"
This is Trump's America! making it better? not so much.
2
@Eli This started long before Trump took office.
3
"a car accident or surgery had left them addicted to painkillers" - this is nonsense - a doctor, with the help of Purdue Pharma, made them addicts.
12
I am in total agreement!
I have medicine cabinets full of opiod pills. Every time I get a minor surgical intervention, serious dental work etc I am prescribed the stuff "just in case". I much prefer pain to the foggiheadedness, constipation and the other side effects of opioids, so I never ever take them no matter what. If I notice the pile of junk pharmaceuticals that has accumulated in my bathroom I understand well the roots of this epidemic.
15
If you can manage your pain without opiates, then of course you were much better off. But go to your medicine cabinet and throw out every single opioid pill, and do it now. If you don't have a current prescription for current condition for which you were actually taking the pills, leaving them around makes it extremely likely that someone else will get into them, and perhaps become addicted. If you're concerned about the effect on the waterways then don't flush them, call your local hospital and ask about a site where you can dispose of those drugs.
9
This is a commending work of journalism that delivers horrific insight to the "nitty gritty" of the underworld of Heroin,USA.
12
Without arrests being made every day, every hour, every minute, these young people will die.
Heroin is illegal. It is totally immoral to allow this kind of rampant drug abuse and peddling of an illegal drug to be ignored.
Politicians: you are responsible for the death of these young people. Look at them in the eyes, they could be your own children.
3
@common sense: Arrest the users and then do what with them? This article is good in part because it makes it clear that there are no easy answers, no simple fix.
Where are the compassionate politicians of Phila?
1
When an addict is ready to get clean any rehab will work, until then the rehab facility is a moneymaker for investors. Most facilities use a treatment plan originating in 1939 which is based on alcohol abuse and Christianity. The program is AA and the success rate is about 10 percent. Most addicts go through multiple rehabs numerous (10 ) times. Evidence clearly shows that drug legalization is the answer to the ugliness of addiction in America.
11
@Barbara
Not that I personally oppose legalization, but I fail to see how that would improve the Philly situation, where, according to this article, enforcement has been light.
2
As a recovering addict stated below, addicts are animals (his words), broken human beings. They should not be allowed to wander about free, they have forfeited that right with their addiction. At this time the only way to deal with them is to make them wards of the state through criminalization, but this has no effect on their behavior. We need to recognize what they really are and create a state system which will make them stay clean and start them down the path of recovery. Or just keep doing what we are doing and accept that certain of our public spaces will be open air asylums.
3
So it's out in the open and the police do nothing. They should confiscate the drugs and the money. Let the entrepreneurs go free. When they regroup and sell more drug repeat the above. Profits will disappear as will crime.
Putting perps in prison is of no use.
3
All these come from greed, everyone wants to get rich somehow, if that means prescribing forbidden illegal elements to vulnerable people who could not resist.
Then there goes out tax payers money for treatment.
2
Here is a plan. Its very easy and cheap to implement. It may be harder for some people to accept
Convince yourself of fact. A fact so real that it may as well be a law of the universe:
Medication-assisted treatment works better, under literally every criteria, than non medication assisted treatment.
If you tend to believe that buprenorphine or Indeed methadone are "drugs by another name", crutches, just stop-gap measures, staving off the inevitable, etc etc then you are flat out wrong. You are a problem. Own it. Accept it. Your philosophy, your opinion is not only objectively wrong but it is a detriment that is limiting our ability to solve this crisis.
Yes. That's right. Methadone.
Those mobile vans driving around giving people supplies should also be dispensing methadone. Unlike buprenorphine it works immediately and does not require specific induction circumstances such as full-blown withdrawals.
If you can keep some of those people from buying drugs that day because they took a methadone dose, and then come back the next day and do the same thing, then your efforts have produced staggeringly effective results compared to previous efforts.
With enough clarity a few of these people can eventually make the right decision and enter treatment where a comfortable dose of buprenorphine maintained over many months can do wonders
The only argument against buprenorphine is diversion, especially to jails. Its a laughable glowing red herring of an argument.
8
@Jarl. Apparently methadone requires a prescription, thus requiring physicians and bureaucracy to be involved. Not a small ask.
2
@Immigrant
Well, if methadone would be a workable solution then it should be removed from any physician prescription requirement. It can't be that big a money-maker for physicians that they would resist this, and it's probably more trouble for them to be involved in addict's treatment regimens.
People make money off drugs.Take the money out and it collapses.The issue is how on earth to get the money out of drugs? Good place to start.
4
Philadefphia has one of the highest wage taxes in the county. What are they doing with all that money? They’re not fixing potholes. They’re not fixing the terrible school system. They’re not fixing the city housing crisis. And after reading the article they’re not fixing the drug problem.
Mayor Keeney, you are fleecing every city resident and city worker with overtaxation and severe underperformance. Stop or resign. The city hasn’t exactly improved under your leadership.
4
I live in Prague and when I visit the US I am shocked by he appearance of the cities there. Oakland, Seattle, Philly all have large sections that are absolutely disgusting. I am afraid to walk down most alleyways in those cities because I fear I will catch a horrible disease. In Prague such places are extremely rare and almost never stay around long. The difference? Not law enforcement, our police are humble and meek and rarely arrest anyone and almost never touch their weapons. Perhaps social workers, as street work is well funded here. But mostly, its about street cleaning. Yeah, we have homeless people, drunks, and drug addicts, and they are dirty just like in the US. Their surroundings are not. We have street sweepers that go down nearly every street in the city at least once a day. Such scenes as are shown in the article simply are not possible, because trash cannot pile up fast enough to keep up with our street sweepers. About half of our street sweepers are paid, and the other half are people who have been arrested for petty crimes and assigned public service. You may not be able to get rid of the addicts, but removing the moldy mattresses, the paper plates, the wet clothing and the other grime, would go a long long way towards improving quality of life for residents. I understand that it would be cruel to remove the tents where people live, but if you sweep around them, then perhaps the addicts would at least learn to keep their things within their confines.
37
Here is the broader plan of action:
1. Focus on stopping the drugs from reaching the streets.
2. Focus on stopping creation of new addicts.
3. Treat the least addicted first and move toward worst cases.
4. Most importantly importantly, prosecute (with very long sentences) drug manufacturers, doctors, and pharmacists who are in any way connected to opioids.
1
@Daulat Rao
Are you actually suggesting that opioids have no legitimate uses?
6
Economic logic would suggest that if legal painkillers become unavailable then illegal painkillers will be used as an alternative. This has been obvious for a long time but deliberately ignored by the institutional powers.
Effectively, the institutional powers exist hand in glove in a reciprocal relationship with illegal dealers. Dealers profit from a market they control. The political institutions profit from the disaster which can then be used to exploit fear and justify greater authoritarian tactics.
Inevitably, the dealers become involved in corrupting and owning the political institutions in pursuit of market control.
This has become the dominant policy of drug control for governments in the modern era. To even question it is to be "suspect". Enlightened policies face a steep uphill road and are rarely sustained or funded beyond a "Project" or "Study"
status.
Until the repressive policy is questioned I expect nothing but more ruined lives, nonsense medical regulation and heated salvation rhetoric from exploiting windbags.
4
My sympathy is with the ordinary residents of the area, trying to go about their lives in a mayhem created by drug users, drug dealers, and the rehab/harm reduction business.
Show some respect for community and move the addiction industry to empty land at the edge of the city.
7
@Paul Jay -- there is no "empty land at the edge of the city" -- that is the suburbs, where everyone left the city. The population per square mile in Pennsylvania is 285 people. Ontario, for comparison, is 36. There's no place to go.
2
I find it interesting that out of the many reasons given for the cause, personal responsibility is nowhere to be found. Yes, the loss of jobs, racism, etc. are part of the problem, but the main problem is people making bad choices and causing other people in the community, including innocent children (most of whom are children of color) to suffer. It ain’t right.
9
Absolutely correct, can you imagine if everyone in the world ran to a drug dealer every time they were fired or their spouse cheated on them, absolute nonsense, take some responsibility and grow up....
4
When a physician prescribed opioids to me for the first time it was for physical pain (post major surgery) and to “take the edge off” anxiety, depression...like a relaxant. Instead of a martini, have a Percocet. But to be fair I was also suffering from post surgical pain and chronic pain from multiple past surgeries. Inasmuch as I don’t have an addictive personality, I didn’t worry about cravings or being unable to quit...I figured it only took self-control to stop. I have always had tremendous self control and never tangled with liquor or cigarettes or benzodiazepines. I was never warned of the horrific physical addiction and the physical torture of withdrawal. Ten years later and I’m still taking oxycodone from legally written prescriptions my doctor gives me every month. In addition, I’m prescribed 2 mg of clonopin twice daily. I hate that drug and yet I cannot just stop taking that drug because withdrawal from benzodiazepines is physically dangerous and not just terrifyingly awful like opioid withdrawal. The underlying anxiety and depression has yet to be addressed. It’s kind of crazy to take pills on schedule to prevent withdrawal (opioids) or life threatening repercussions such as seizures and arrhythmiae (benzodiazepines). Apparently worst of all is alcohol detox. I’m in a weird waiting room...hoping to find a way to get off a ten year regimine of taking oxycodone daily because a doctor never explained what being addicted meant. It’s a nightmare.
12
@Umi: Opiods for anxiety or depression? That does not sound like wise prescribing. Good luck to you. You can find a solution.
@Umi
Benzodiazepines are nearly as bad as opioids IMO - and doctors will tell you there's no withdrawal. Ha!!! Benzos are the next crisis we're going to hear about. Klonopin is evil.
1
It’s been said thousands of times, if you spend the money treating the users, the dealers will automatically disappear. Also, tear the crackhouses and abandoned factories down and have the recovering addicts plant grass and trees for the remaining, responsible home owners to enjoy.
3
Addicts are very difficult and frustrating people to deal with. I am struck by how many people are trying to help, despite no clear path to success. People can be amazingly kind. Thank you -you are far better than me.
7
I appreciate the way that this writing demystified aspects of addiction. Details like frequency of use in a single day are really eye opening and oddly hard to come across in more typical accounts.
8
At what point do we draw the line?
What is the overall cost to society of these people?
How many children could go to college by taking the money spent on addicts and instead supporting education?
When does 'concern' mutate into subsidy of destructive behavior?
How may cities are we going to allow to be ruined?
10
The use of the term “addicts” throughout the article is unfortunate, as it has largely been discarded as stigmatising and derogatory. Rather, those struggling with substance use issues are more empathetically described as “people who use drugs”, or “people who inject drugs” (PWID). Readers might keep in mind that trauma is a near-universal component of drug use, whether by cause or effect; the least we can do is to avoid further stigmatisation.
3
I’m an addiction researcher, compelled to respond to the idea that opioids are an unprecedented scourge unleashed by big pharma. Yes Sackler etc are culpable, but opioids are just the latest “demon drug” and no more capable of making somebody an addict in one week then any of the previous candidates. This is a mistaken way of looking at the problem.
I’m always amazed by all the prosperous white people who say that they don’t take prescribed opioids for a short course of pain relief in case they become addicts. This trajectory is highly unusual in the research. You have to need or desire more than pain relief to develop problems.
Personally I’ve been taking opioids for my migraines since I was 10 years old. As I’m on sabbatical researching outside the US I currently have a supply of codeine/oxycodone worth $30,000 in street sales in my cupboard. No desire to “abuse” it whatsoever, and I’m no puritan.
As many commenters have suggested, there are many reasons that people turn to opioids for comfort, from childhood trauma and neglect to PTSD, unemployment, poverty, family crisis and other sources of despair. The opioid crisis, like previous drug “epidemics” is primarily hitting poor or downwardly mobile people in depressed towns and neighborhoods, as well as others who have suffered serious adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). We need holistic understandings of why so many have become vulnerable to addiction during the “jobless recovery” rather than “worst drug ever” panic.
10
You’re arguing against a straw man here. No one is claiming pharma companies created this crisis ex nihilo. To deny fentanyl and OxyContin aren’t engineered to be more physically powerful than previous drugs, under the guise of “expertise” is shamefully irresponsible on your part. This is not academia where you get points for hair splitting. This is real life.
Stop patting yourself on the back for resisting overusing the drug as well, that’s also pretty gross, as an addiction researcher you should have sympathy for the people for whom it’s physically or psychologically difficult to just let it be a temporary fix. To say “look I take opioids it’s not about the drug it’s about downward mobility” is a twofer of oversimplification and callousness.
You are also wrong about suggesting that opioid addiction does not affect affluent communities. Downwardly mobile people are worst hit but fentanyl doesn’t discriminate.
Again, if your point is that pharma companies didn’t create this out of nothing that’s not a point that needs to be made here. To deny they have contributed massively to this problem under your aegis of “science” is again extremely irresponsible.
Enjoy your sabbatical, by the way. If more people had access to that kind of break in our country maybe there would be fewer stressed out people and fewer weathering causalities that would make the plunge into addiction less of a probability for psychologically vulnerable people.
@Teresa Gowan
What would you do if your supply ran out and you had no legal way to obtain more? Would you be able to keep working?
What would you do if you could not afford pharmaceuticals, and your only option was to use heroin?
Obviously, you have a problem if you feel the need to stockpile so much medication.
You should count your blessings.
2
We have people we dont need. When the economy falters, we have a lot more of them. In general, it is their problem.
People we dont need, and especially drug addicts, provide a certain number of jobs -- for policemen, social workers, EMS people, and so on. They also provide an outlet for people with charitable or sympathetic impulses, so that these impulses can be channeled and satisfied without threatening the status quo. People we dont need who are drug addicts do not threaten the social order. They can be ignored or driven from place to place and they will not organize or vote or resist. They can be demonized for votes; they help organize the makers against the takers.
Drug addicts will not go straight unless they really want to, and even then they may not make it the first time or for long or ever. We should provide safe and healthy places to shoot up, and rehabilitation for any who want to try it. Some will escape their devil and some wont.
Such a policy would make sense. A policy of encouraging them to overdose would make a different sort of sense. Since we cannot make up our minds, our policies make little sense and wind up moving the problems around and around.
15
In Sydney (Kings Cross actually), we have safe injecting rooms. After initial controversy and end of the world/civilization outcries it's generally seen as not an issue and actually a very positive advancement that saves lives of many of those who never set out to be addicts. Next up is pill testing at music festivals (another highly contentious issue). It should not be about demonising users - but helping save lives. The next 'one' may be your sister/brother or other relative or associate. It's just too easy to turn your back. . @sdavidc9
7
Excellent article. We do not know how to help those who have reached these levels of hopelessness and - until treatment is as easily accessible as dope is - many will continue to suffer and die, and under-resourced neighborhoods will also pay the price. We need much more research into innovative treatments and treatment-delivery models.
15
Thank you Jennifer Percy for this beautiful and heartbreaking witness. It's sobering to see how a community with such good intentions can still struggle so terribly to solve this problem. Here in Los Angeles the homeless situation seems to just be growing, people living under bridges, and you just become numb to it, you drive right past ... thank you for taking the time to meet these people and give them a voice, it's really powerful. May they find solace soon!!!
18
Stop blaming the medical community and start taking personal responsibility.
If I handled my personal trauma by keeping my head down and studying for 15 years (after college) to become a physician and help others, then I think other people can not stick a needle in their arm and expect sympathy/handouts.
We all make choices about how we handle and face our trauma.
32
@A. Read the article in the Tennessean about the nurse practitioner who prescribed opiods to her patients - as many as 50 pills a day. She's still working. That happens because there are people in the medical field and in pharmacies who either don't care or aren't paying attention.
11
@A. - I agree with you that many people exercise VERY poor choices. But there is more to this issue than that.
There is a small minority of people in Medicine who are explicitly corrupt and profiting from the over-prescription of drugs. They should be treated as criminals, and are on the rare occasions when caught.
I will ignore that group here.
There are ALSO well-intentioned people in Medicine who seem not to have fully understood that some very useful and legal prescription medications are highly addictive to certain people. Their insufficient knowledge (we all learn through experience) has led to a widespread addiction issue. It was all exacerbated by the drug manufacturers who profited from these prescriptions and over-promote them.
What was needed was a deeper understanding of the addiction risks associated with these legal drugs and a mandatory program to avoid over-prescribing and to assist legitimate prescription drug users to wean themselves from the drugs once their medical issues were resolved.
This applies doubly for soldiers returning from combat zones. They are trained well to throw themselves into situations that the rest of us could never survive, psychologically and physically. But when they finish their service to the country they are abandoned, with no systematic program to "un-train" them and help them return to civilian life.
4
@A.
Studying for fifteen years without figuring out the origin of the word ‘medicine’? Awesome.
1
I wish more people paid attention to what led people to start using heroin in the first place. Scratch the surface and more often than not you find trauma. How many people in these encampments started using because they were raped or sexually/physically abused as kids or experienced some other kind of trauma from which they’re trying to escape? This is not to say I don’t completely empathize with the families whose communities are being taken over with this public health crisis. But I wish when we talked about the causes of the opioid epidemic we didn’t give such short shrift to the fact that a significant percentage of substance users have undiagnosed PTSD. Addressing the opioid epidemic requires actually understanding the complex factors involved in addiction - including the relationship between trauma exposure and subsequent substance dependence.
48
@MF - I am one of 6 children in my family. Our household life was essentially loving, calm and happy. Five of us grew up to lead happy, productive lives. The oldest was an addict his whole life.
There seems to be a genetic issue here. He had a different father, who much later, became an extreme alcoholic. My half-brother had no contact with his biological father for his entire youth. But when this brother was 15 he was introduced to alcohol by "friends". He basically never stopped drinking, his entire life. This led to frequent use of hard drugs. He overdosed on heroin at the age of 40.
Meanwhile, across the country, his father was succumbing to alcohol. None of us, including my parents, knew about this at the time. My parents and the rest of my siblings have had no addiction issues.
I believe that some people have a genetic predisposition to addiction that makes them much more susceptible. I think the medical field needs to account for this when prescribing opioids, which have a legitimate place in treatment. I think mandatory programs need to be in place to make sure that people being treated with opioids are weaned from them at the end of their treatment.
Regarding PTSD, I think our veterans need to be handled better too. They are trained to face horrors on the battlefield, but they are not "un-trained" to return to civilian life. They are just left to fend on their own, which does NOT work.
13
Good, thorough research. Well written. Beautifully, poetically written -- possibly too beautiful for such a grim subject nearly devoid of hope.
33
I have asthma & was prescribed a cough medicine with codeine for a bad flu. I took half the dosage, for half of the recommended days because I’m small. After, I couldn’t sleep for days—and at that moment I understood addiction. What about if I had taken it for 2 weeks, instead of 3 days? I am social worker, knew the symptoms were withdrawal, & dumped the left-over medicine down the drain. Opioids have no limits on who it attacks and doctors have to prescribe much less of it.
24
@Laura X - Thanks for sharing the experience. It demonstrates well the dangers.
However, in the future, please don't dispose of medicine down the drains. It is very destructive to the environment.
The DEA recommends strongly the first option of taking medicines to a "take back" site. Only in very limited circumstances do they recommend flushing them down the toilet, and then only if a take back site is not convenient.
To find a take back site near you simply Google "medicine take back near me" and your location and many websites will show up.
Here's one I found near Los Angeles.
https://www.nodrugsdownthedrain.org/NoDrugs/disposal.asp
Thanks again.
5
To those who say this is a choice, yes it is a choice but it's not as simple as that. Why did someone make this choice or continue with this choice? One thing not mentioned in this article: for rehab to work the person must want to rehab, must choose it, not be forced into it. Rehab is really hard and to stay with it a person needs to either know that others care and/or needs to have a life reason for getting clean. In other words, without other people the addict will probably stay addicted because s/he has no reason to make the choice to get and stay clean. Yes, it's a choice but to make a different choice, the addict has to have a reason and that reason can't come from other people - it must come from the addict her or himself. They are human beings. That is first and foremost.
24
People! You need to know that getting high feels good. It doesn't work for everyone but for those it does it's amazing. That is the heart of the problem: how do you get people to stop wanting to feel good and settle for feeling ok. I have been sober from alcohol for 22 years and still remember how that first drink felt. After a while you want to feel that way ALL the time. Eventually the addict crashes and then has two choices: sober up or stay drunk 24/7. It's that serious. Alcohol is a legal drug; heroin et al . is not. I'd take down the dealers and let the users either find sobriety or suffer. No way should the neighborhood be soiled like described.
3
Incredibly sad stories. Every addict, someone’s child. The biggest target to reduce further addiction is minimizing the exposure of new patients to any opioid derived pain medicine. In the 70s and 80s heroin killed 3000 people per year and Purdue Pharma had not yet hatched the “our opiates don’t cause addiction” scheme. People coped with pain mostly without opioids and lived to tell about it.
28
A dramatic presentation- shows so clearly why a municipality must NEVER allow camping, living or sleeping on public property. It is so much harder to cleanup than to prevent.
This article is well done in that it doesn’t call the situation “homelessness” which paints the issue as housing.
38
Before medical school, I had a very minor procedure, and my doctor prescribed Percocet for the pain. I took 1/2 of 1 pill since I am a small person an had never had anything that strong before. It was the only and last dose of any opiate I have ever taken. It was so overwhelmingly strong, that I knew there was absolutely no need for this type of drug in a pill form unless it was for a dying cancer patient or a massive trauma. As a physician, I have never applied for a DEA license, and I have never once prescribed an opiate pain killer. I think it is obvious that the utility of drugs that strong outside of oncology or the ICU is minimal to none. It is shameful what the medical community has done to all these people.
99
How nice for you to be able to feel so self-righteous about not needing a DEA number! However, some of us are oncologists or trauma and critical care surgeons, so we actually have to take care of people with legitimate acute opioid needs.
8
@SS
Good post, but if someone asked you to testify against a fellow doctor you would most likely decline.
3
There's quite a bit of variation in how people react to opioids. They don't make me high at all (in fact I dislike them) but NSAIDS and acetaminophen (Tylenol) have side effects that can be dangerous for some people.
Other people think they're great, but choose not to take them recreationally.
Basing patient treatment on your personal experience is essentially relying on anecdote, not data.
5
This is beyond sad. My mother grew up in Kensington in the 40s- it was a nice, working-class neighborhood. I spent a wonderful childhood in nearby Port Richmond, Philadelphia in the 50s and 60s. We moved out to the northwest reaches of the city because the neighborhood schools were becoming dangerous. It's hard to look at these pictures of devastation and recall the neat, clean streets that I happily (and safely) played on.
51
A lot of people miss on the fact that a lot of money, people, and resources is going to these addicts to try and help and solve the problem. The challenge we're currently facing is not a lack of care about these people, but a lack of known solutions.
We need to open the floodgates and test many different experimental options for these people. Let different groups try to help, and have the government reward those who succeed (making sure that only a permanent solution, and not a cycle of rehab/relapse, is rewarded as success).
34
Here's a plan:
1. Request Philly's hospitals contribute 1% of their annual profits toward building a new facility, away from the Kensington area.
2. Solicit underwriting from the Perelmans, Kimmels, et al - with sponsors' names affixed to the center's buildings.
3. Have the governor apply for massive Federal funding via the Opioid Crisis Bill.
4. Have the governor declare Kensington a state disaster area, by which mandatory addict transfer - from the street to this new facility - occurs.
5. Complete street relocation must not exceed two weeks - similar to the area being hit by a hurricane.
6. Addict release is not permitted until completion of the center's new rehab program.
7. The rehab facility will comprise 4 buildings:
a. A detox center - immediately upon arrival, with curtained, overnight areas to treat anticipated, critical addiction withdrawal - with an adjacent annex built for those requiring comprehensive mental illness treatment.
b. A housing, hygiene, and eating facility - completely separate from the detox center - with addict transfer into this facility only after thorough medical detox certification.
c. A combination gymnasium, 12 Step, and cultural facility to monitor, discuss and prevent relapse.
d. A training facility focusing on the construction trades, animal care, music and art, City Farms cultivation, and so on.
A public/private partnership, with generous public participation, is the plan.
Our children deserve to have their playgrounds back.
104
Instead of building a brand new place, can't we just convert an old military base?
2
@Paul Seletsky: and who do you imagine would call this fine plan "Socialism" or "the Nanny State," bombastically reminding us all of his "I did it all myself" nonsense?
1
Incredibly well-reported piece!
68
Choices.... No sympathy here......
Give my tax dollars to help those who want to be responsible and thereby make this world a better place for all....
26
@William B.
It's great to make the acquaintance of a person who has never in his life made a bad choice.
I hope you've heard the phrase "There for the grace of God go I." I can assure you that it is true.
9
I thought liberals liked choice concerning their bodies. These people made a choice it’s on them.
19
Choice and empathy. Why would you think they would be mutually exclusive?
The us vs them mentality does not help anything.
3
@M And what about the neighborhood children who have to avoid used needles on their walk to school? What choice did they make? Oh that's right - once they're born they no longer matter to conservatives.
5
@M Indeed. But the residents of these neighborhoods did not make the choice to live in filthy, crime-ridden streets.
4
Lying is THE religion of the Americans. Drugs, weapons and money promise to creating your own truth. Americans call it 'reality'after.
5
As a native Philly girl, if you were from Kensington, you were considered low-class. This area has been like this for years particularly after the Vietnam War when the soldiers came home from SE Asia already addicted and no one gave a damn because the area was filled with low-income whites, blacks or Hispanics. When the crack-cocaine epidemic hit and it hit hard in the black & brown communities the "powers that be" locked up all the black and brown people! Now most of the addicts that come to the neighborhood are white, now this epidemic which has been going on for over 40 years in Kensington is getting media coverage. Where was the compassion when black and brown people were getting locked up and criminalized for their addiction!
148
The longer I live, the more amazed and sickened I am by the hypocrisy of rich Caucasian apologists and politicians.
When heroin was confined to poor black neighborhoods and poor black people, addiction was treated as evidence of the helplessness and depravity of the Negro race. Now, since whites have discovered the joys of smack, addiction has magically morphed into an illness that demands treatment and compassion from all. But the rich don't need to worry, because - if this article is correct - all the solutions put forth by our leaders still put their biggest burdens on people who are brown and/or poor. Civic life and civic solutions to our nation's problems are dead. All that's left is to wait for our toe tags.
76
Pharmaceutical Corporations made billions of dollars encoraging doctors to overprescribe highly-addictive opiods. They even claimed that these drugs were LESS addictive than their predecessors, when actually the opposite was true.
Many of these addicts started using street drugs after becoming addicted to these prescribed opiods, so why shouldn't we hold Big Pharma accountable for some of this clean-up? They certainly have the money.
20
@Sarah
Exactly and not on pharma executive is doing a day of time. The US values the rule of law the rule is if you have money you are above the law
5
It's like an episode of the Walking Dead. Problem: it's not entertainment. Really telling about about the range of those desolate -hearted people who've just given up... it's exhausting and overwhelming to read about, nevermind to figure out a solution..
6
Thank you so much for this article. It has been long time since I read something this good in the NYT! It was paingul to read but certainly is neccesary to expose the misery these people are suffering. Thanks!
24
Depressing for sure. Humans eith seemingly no way out.
Overall this conflagration of drugs seems greater in the US than anywhere in the world. Deaths, addiction numbers , crime.
Try reading “Chasing the scream” by Johann Hari, while I am not 100% convinced it does make a very cogent argument for what one might call a modified legalization of these drugs. ( the addiction centers government to supply drugs and needles under controlled circumstances. Expanded methadone.
The compelling part is the removal of profit financial incentive for both the drug dealers and the police. Its a huge money pit with only the addicts losing. Suppliers and law enforcement lapping up billions. Would like to see the option debated. Portugal and parts of Canada etc have been successful with various plans from what Hari lays out??
6
This article describes the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver too. So many try to help - but what is the solution?
13
@Jen And many parts of Seattle as well.
1
@Jen, Decriminalization of most drugs would be a logical, effective first step.
“In the early 2000s, Dominican gangs started bringing in Colombian heroin that was not only purer but much cheaper than heroin imported from Asia, which historically predominated.”
This is the ‘truth’ that we’re going with? How many places in the world can actually produce enough poppy straw to accommodate America’s opioid crisis?
Fascinating.
6
@ubique
It's infinite. as much as is "needed" or pushed can be produced.
1
@Euphemia Thompson
“Afghanistan's opium poppy harvest produces more than 90% of illicit heroin globally, and more than 95% of the European supply.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_production_in_Afghanistan
That may be Afghanistan's response to US foreign policy.
10
@juanfran
US foreign policy in Afghanistan was to protect the poppy fields for friendly warlords. Obama mentioned the US would do something about Afghanistan heroin, of course it was a talk
Maybe this "problem" is not solvable -- God knows, many communities have been battling the toxic combination of drug addiction + homelessness + mental illness for decades.
Maybe the best we can do is manage these encampments and try to make these people's lives a little less miserable. Put military-style logistics in place -- set up bathrooms, laundry facilities, showers, and food distribution onsite. Have a clean team pick up trash on a daily basis. Have a clean injection site. Put a mental-health counselor onsite 24/7.
And life sentences for selling drugs should be part of the discussion. These are the people who are profiting off of others' misery.
7
How unforgivably sad that so many of our veterans can’t afford the pain meds they need because they don’t have adequate medical insurance, and so they turn to heroin and get stuck in this cycle. Our gov’t and messed up health care system is to blame most of all. No one WANTS to become a homeless addict.
9
Reading the comments associated with this article enrages me. If you want to know why there is an opioid epidemic in this country take the time to read two books. First up "Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic" by Sam Quinones and Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America by Beth Macy. If after reading these you will know that it is Purdue Pharmacy and the Sackler family who reaped billions from the manufacture and marketing of Oxycontin that is the real villain along with physicians who handed out opioids indiscriminately to any and all who asked and didn't ask but became addicted.
The fact that the Metropolitan Museum of Art has a "Sackler Wing" is a reason to never step into that institution again.
And the NYT could educate readers by exposing the real reason this Philadelphia neighborhood is racked with addicts as is many neighborhoods in America. Don't just tell the story - dig deep into the tactics used by Purdue to market their addictive drug and make it a front page headline.
To say that Purdue "got away with murder" is an understatement.
My guess is that those railing against "liberal" policies won't take the time to find out the real story behind our nationwide addiction problem and continue to blame the victims of this health crisis.
143
So is this an illegal drug crime wave or a drug health care epidemic or a capitalist business opportunity?
Is the solution prison, drug rehab or cheers for Making America Great Again?
5
I can't help but think how much money the pharmaceutical industry is now making off of narcan when they were the ones pushing opiates to begin with..it's quite ridiculous. Pain management in the US is completely flawed. In Europe you'll receive some ibuprofen 800s post-op and be told to rest. It's time for big pharma to take some responsibility for the products they push and the way they incentivize doctors. Where is the FDA when you actually need them?
40
My brother was a drug addict briefly in the late 60s. He was sentenced to a year in a prison-like hospital, where he managed to get clean, get therapy, and stay off the streets for a reasonable length of time. He came out and never used again. We have to find some type of long-term rehab solutions that get people clean and well away from these environments. Rehab facilities in drug neighborhoods is not a good idea. Prosecuting high-level dealers would be a good start too.
13
What is striking in this piece is the number of veterans who have returned from duty overseas only to become addicts in the country for which they risked life and limb.
Our fighters deserve better than this.
28
Stories about zombie addicts have been written for decades. There is nothing new here. The US has moved away from criminalizing drug addiction to treating it which was a positive move. Unfortunately, the result is that a monstrous mainly non-profit recovery industry has grown to combat addiction but for the most part it is a vast expensive failure as people churn through it over and over and over. One addict churning through treatment can cost in the hundreds of thousands, even millions, of dollars. We have come to the point where legalizing addictive drugs and making them only available through government controlled clinics is an alternative worth considering. The clinics would be a gateway to appropriate treatment and overall case management. There would still be addicts who prefer living under a bridge and being knocked out 24/7 but it is also the right of citizens to push them out of their neighborhoods. Drug addiction, by the way, is not a Democratic or Republican issue, so don't go there.
28
@BB Fernandez
Yes, legalize all drugs, control them, tax,them and oversee their distribution. Cigarettes have killed millions of people ad cost trillions in healthcare costs.
3
I am wondering where are these people supposed to live?? Sleep? In many ways we are a very cruel nation. (Peopel snoozing off get kicked out of libraries. A cup of coffee costs usually 1$. WHERE CAN THESE PEOPLE GO? Personally, I like the idea of 18 hour libraries, some kind of center -- with activities of various sorts. Making. Exercising. "Camp" so to speak.... and in an odd way with the tent encampments that is what they had.
Yes, making sure that money made money did result in jobs going bye-bye.... and along with the jobs ... that community. Nothing replaced it. Tax the rich plenty -- and a luxury tax but what do we have inflation in the price of housing, food, gasoline.... etc. I blame them all starting with Ronnie Reagan.
10
Military Spending in the United States. One year, 54 percent of all federal discretionary spending, a total of $598.5 billion. Where are our national priorities?
These people were someone's babies once. Many in Kensington are military veterans. Addiction is a medical/social problem. They need help. Plus the kids left behind cost us all.
If the US wanted, a tiny percent of wasteful military spending should go to our own internal war in these poor neighborhoods.
89
How exactly would you solve this problem with money? Details please.
2
@kat perkins Yes! So much yes.
Separate the addicts from society.
Use drug/homeless program budgets to create huge addict settlements in remote rural areas.
Compell addicts to live in these settlements.
(Send the addiction/homeless program administrators to them too.)
Treat the treatable, but force them to stay until they’re clean for a long minimum period.
The street dealers will probably follow the customers.
The neighbors will thank you.
8
@Melvin
In addition to what you said:
Make the drugs in the US and give it to the addicts for free--unless they want to be treated. This would get rid of the dealers and ultimately the cartels.
I think this would still be cheaper then the war on drugs.
I was a heroin addict in Philly almost ten years ago. Kensington was bad then and it's bad now. It's sick that it took a crazy political climate to get people to even talk about the Badlands, but if addicts are seen as voters, maybe that makes a difference.
I tried to get off heroin several times. Cold turkey. Methadone. Leaving the state. Etc. I cannot stress the importance of Suboxone. The minute I took the medication it was as if someone hit the reset button. I called my family, moved out of state and in with them and have been clean for many years.
Why aren't we pumping shelters with Suboxone? I know it's expensive, but this can't be a better solution. Narcan is nice, but that's only preventing death.
87
I applaud Mayor Kenney for taking the initiative to try to clean up the area with a multidisciplinary approach, trying to help those who want help, and trying to convince those who don't want help to seek it anyway.
That said, it becomes clear eventually that a certain segment of these folks simply do not want help, do not want to be clean, and simply want this as their life. They refuse help. At that point, it becomes abusive to constantly offend their personal agency, forcing them to live how they don't want to live. At the same time, continuing to enable their personal choice (not to become addicted, but to remain addicted with no effort to change) becomes a lesson in insanity. These are adults. They have agency. If they choose to decline help, let them live with the repercussions, and concentrate instead on the needs of the innocent hardworking people in the town whose lives are being shattered by these selfish people.
Stop caring more for people than they bother to care for themselves.
13
@Abc123
I really do not think that people dealing with this hellish problem are being "cared for too much."
1
Blue lights on porches make it harder for addicts to inject . . . .this is what we are down to. Hellish suffering. So sorry for everyone dealing with this, especially the children.
39
Why do we have a prohibition program that doesn't work and fills the taxpayer funded prisons, often run by foreign prison contractors, full of non-violent sick people with addiction problems.
Are we trying to set ourselves up to be taken advantage of?
We are being re-colonized by the foreign prison companies, like G4S, drug cartels,and foreign oil companies, like Saudi Aramco and Royal Dutch Shell that took over our largest oil refinery; BP that returned to Iraq in 2003 after a 45 year absence when our troops cleared the way for them and our taxpayers paid trillions to make this possible.
In places like Portugal where they treat drug problems but don't prosecute them, drug use has fallen below 20% of what it once was.
In Switzerland, you can walk into a clinic and get heroin, assured of the ingredients of the product. The Swiss do this because they do not want the gangs and cartels that make places like Chicago, the murder capital of the nation, in their country.
Tax and regulate drugs, provide treatment for addicts, so we can get beyond this unfortunate period in our history.
By the way, in 2001, no heroin was produced in Afghanistan; Myanmar was the world's leading producer of heroin. But from 2002 forward, Afghanistan was the world's leading producer of heroin and hashish, producing over 14 trillion dollars worth since 2002.
So who actually had motive to bring down the towers and start a war in Afghanistan and Iraq?
And why does no one ask this question?
20
You know that Afghanistan was a major opium producer prior to 2001. There was only a small blip for a couple of years when it was not a major opium/heroin producer. The Taliban prior to 2000 had no issue with opium. Why are you not telling the whole truth?
@jan We DO NOT put people in prison for addiction. That is a myth.
This is a fantastic piece of journalism, a crystal-clear window onto a tragedy.
15
Injection sites and plenty of public restrooms are the answers. Those few amenities aren't going to drive people to suddenly give up everything and settle down to become heroin addicts. How is this so hard for government employees to understand? Not all fights are winnable and the drug war certainly isn't.
14
i was a community organizer in Kensington and North Philly in the mid-late 70s. this article doesn't surprise me.
the area was characterized, even then, by extreme poverty, more extreme than i had ever seen in NYC, even in the South Bronx. you can't talk about the current drug situation without addressing such extreme poverty, lack of jobs, lack of hope.
in the late 70s, there were young men on almost every street corner who were known as "huffers." they sniffed and were addicted to a cheap cleaning solvent known as "Ty-wool." I'm sure i'm spelling that wrong, i don't know what it really was. it would totally burn out their brains and bodies, they were emaciated walking zombies, and very dangerous.
Kensington was once a thriving industrial area, the center of the textile industry, filled with factories. By the 70s, these were almost all gone. the area was in-bred, people lived there for generations. the area was known as K&A (Kensington Avenue and Alleghany Avenue) and actually had its own dialect.
28
@bruce bernstein
So where do all these men get the money for drugs?
2
Bruce, you are so right. I was born and raised in Philadelphia, and lived there for 50 years. When the factories started moving to cheaper labor states, Philadelphia was dealt a death blow. (The city used to be the leading manufacturing city in the world about 120 years ago. Hard to believe, isn't it?) Then banks and insurance companies started merging and relocating. Because the school system was turning out non functional illiterates, many businesses relocated to the suburbs. Now I believe the Federal govt and U of P are the major employers. I know this first hand because I tried to teach remedial reading in the early 70s to high school sophomores who were reading at a 3rd grade level then. There's plenty of great PR for Center City while many areas look like bombed out cities of the Middle East.
We used to live in Olney northwest of Kensington off 5th street and it was bad news then in the 1980’s. Crack vials everywhere and even in the school yards and sidewalks nearby. Grade schools! Most all of the street people then had mental problems, and not all of them took drugs either. They preferred their world vs the side effects of psychotropic medications, and lived on handouts mostly. Or scrounging , panhandling or being creative by standing at intersections squirting a soapy liquid on windshields then “ demanding” change to quickly squeegee it off. The poor will always be with us says the good book. (Amen.)
5
@loyd eskildson: great question. I am a masters trained nurse, also in public health with a focus on comparative health care policy. Which is to say I know a little bit, but not nearly enough. First, other countries prioritize addiction as a health problem, not a criminal one. Second, in America (and this was clearly borne out in this article), most addictions stem from accidents and injuries and the way we dole out medication for the downstream effects of those. Other countries (dare I say where health care is a human right, not a privilege) spend more time with these same patients and utilize other treatment modalities with less negative downstream, addictive effects. Think: massage; meditation; toggling anti-inflammatory meds with anti-pain meds, rather than opiates. Lots of psycho-social support to manage low-level, ongoing pain, etc.
There is a place for opioids, but in the time crunch of caring for patients in America, coupled with huge gaps in follow-up care and a ‘take a pill so I don’t feel anything’ culture, we have so much to learn from other countries.
Unfortunately, even understanding that we don’t have all the answers is a skill we haven’t mastered.
40
@Lissa Addiction is not considered a crime in the US. An addict who is involved in criminal behavior would be arrested for the crime, not for the addiction. If it is a non-violent crime the addict may be steered into Drug Treatment Courts which research has shown to be very effective. Also, many of the tx modalities you mentioned have been utilized here for years. Methadone, needle exchange, acupuncture are also provided. I disagree that we have much to learn from others. The UK has a monstrous alcohol problem. So, does Russian. Heroin addiction is a big problem in France. What we have here is a failure to legalize addictive drugs and dispense them through government clinics where addicts can be steered into case management.
8
Untrue. First, only 3% of hospitals receiving federal dollars (read those hospitals who disproportionately treat acute overdoses) use ANY of the above treatment modalities. They are simply too overwhelmed and understaffed for the kind of time required.
Second: criminalizing addiction IS prioritized over treating and managing in this country and is demonstrated by the numbers of non-criminal offenders currently in our prison system; lack of federalized needle exchanges. Additionally, methadone is not covered by Medicare; because Medicaid is a mix of state and federal funding—coverage of maintenance methadone treatment through Medicaid varies by state and not all insurance, for those who have it, cover it al all.
I appreciate your perspective on other addiction issues that other countries have, but we still have much to learn.
8
Need to lower the price of prescription Oxy.
4
It is time to enforce personal responsibility and the consequences that accompany it. It is time to protect the rest of society from those who drag it down by their life-choice of addition.
If an emergency worker is called to respond to a person experiencing an overdose - check behind the right ear, then:
- If it is clear, administer a dose of Narcan. Place a small tattoo behind the right ear.
- If there is a tattoo behind the right ear, move on.
36
@George whitney I recommend you read the book Dopesick. Before I read it, I thought exactly like you do - why should we help people who are addicts, when they have done this to themselves. But, after reading it and learning what the heroin epidemic is really about and who caused it - I have nothing but empathy for addicts. Really, read Dopesick. I have recommended it to countless. It will change your perspective.
2
@George whitney
You do realize that if it's called addiction for a reason? If it were a choice then people would just quit. I also find it very difficult to find empathy for drug-users. I've dealt with a few of them in my time and still harbor a lot of bad feelings toward them. On the outside, it's easy to see a selfish, criminal who only cares about their own self-destruction. It's harder to see how much pain there is on the inside. I'm all for the safe injection sites. It will help keep the needles off the streets, stop the spread of disease, and encourage users to enter rehab. I don't know what the answer is besides "stop the addiction before it starts" but that's easier said than done. Esp. if there isn't one culprit. Until we figure it out, please try to have a little more empathy.
12
@George whitney This would work great...in a dystopian horror film,
10
Too many people wander into this life after getting hooked on painkillers. The FDA needs to up their game and do faster evaluations and approvals on any promising therapies that alleviate pain without getting the patient high or hooked.
17
Einstein’s definition of insanity : doing the same things over and over and expecting a different response.
Perhaps it is about time to change the dynamic on the drug wars. Perhaps we need to reclassify addiction as a health problem and treat it accordingly versus continuing to treat it as a criminal problem.
Perhaps we need to shift the money spent on chasing drug dealers and reinvest I’m addicted patients.
35
@FDNYMom Why are we the world's biggest user? How do other nations handle this, what works?
3
@FDNYMom
Perhaps we need to stop seeing it as a problem. What defines "problem?" Death? Dysfunction? maybe some people are born to be junkies. As far as I know William S Burroughs was a high functioning junky.
I was a cigarette addict. I quit, but people failed for a decade to get me to quit. I quit just before I turned forty. Addicts gonna use.
2
That’s exactly what Philadelphia is trying to do.
2
In some of the comments here, there is little appreciation for the reality that change takes time. I believe Mayor Kenney is to be applauded for addressing the complexity of the challenge -- a challenge that, as many people here note, has been part of the fabric of the city for decades. It is a fantasy to expect such a major problem to be completely solved in two years. The mayor's assembly of a task force, including experts, and the fact that he is actually pursuing informed solutions, represents progress.
It seems to be a tendency to point to Democrat-led efforts at reform as "failed" when they do not solve decades-old problems within a year or two. I wish more people would acknowledge that it takes years of effort, inevitably with some trial and error, and with a lot of cooperation and good faith, to accomplish what has not been accomplished before.
129
Maybe one approach not mentioned would be for a collection of states to open a class-action lawsuit against the Sackler family for lying to doctors and hospitals about the addictive qualities of OxyContin, for starters. Make the Sacklers finance addiction recovery centers in all 50 states.
228
@kladinvt If only! Such addiction treatment centers would certainly be more aptly named than some museum wings around here.
8
@kladinvt
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations should be taken to task as well
1
It's shocking to read about a country that has so much but whose people are suffering so badly by their own hands. How can one explain it? Maybe the United States will have to become an undeveloped country and start all over again. Perhaps the philosophy of individualism was wrong, that your political compass led you to this reality, that the idea that everyone needs to take care of themselves - results in a country where the only sober people are the muslim immigrants and extended families who support each other. This article describes the failure of America.
38
@june Like Europe and every other country doesn’t have these problems too.
/s
1
This is what happens to neighborhoods when you send all your factory jobs to countries where the work can be done with slave labor. The underpass in the photos is a half block from where I used to get off the el and wait for the bus that would take me to my teaching job in a class of developmentally delayed students. When I started to wait there in1967 the corner would be full of people waiting for buses that would take them to their jobs in the factories in the area. I would run into former students who, even with problems that kept them from a regular classroom, were able to get jobs running a sewing machine doing piecework, assembly work, or packing. Some of my alums would be on their way to day programs for special needs adults, As with the factories and jobs, those programs don't exist anymore either.
This had been a blue collar neighborhood. Many voted Republican. When I retired 16 years ago people had not yet begun to camp on the sidewalks. However almost every corner in the area had a young and wasted young woman soliciting to raise money for her next fix. Older people who had lived on the streets in the neighborhood for years sold their houses cheap to people with dreams of gentrification, or they just walked away from them.
Plenty of financial breaks for the billionaire donor class. No money for education, medical care or other human services. Your vote matters so think before you vote. This show could be coming to a neighborhood near you.
305
I have voted D, in the few years that I became citizen. The Democrats policies sent a lot of jobs away, in the name of global economy, so it’s not like voting for one versus the other would have made a difference in this point. That’s why the democrats have to do a lot of soul searching about what they stand for.
1
It would be less expensive to legalize drugs and limit the distribution to local health agencies. Drug addicts will take drugs regardless if they are legal or not. I’m not advocating for the use of these drugs, but after experiencing the death of a friend’s son from fentanyl laced heroin and the subsequent anguish it’s time to change the approach to drug addiction. If we don’t change then we face this darwininian experience of addicts dying in the streets, Police and EMT wasting time trying to clean up areas like Kensington.
48
I wonder how much it costs society to deal with this problem ( police, rehabilitation programs, social workers, medical workers, etc. ). I read that some people overdose regularly and have to be revived over and over again. It sounds cold, but why not make it clear to those people that they get 3 strikes and then that's it. I read that some will do anything to get high. If they're so hard core, then ship them off to a camp somewhere away from civilization and give them all the drugs they want for free. Why should the rest of us be prey to those who already gave up on themselves?
I'm all for helping those that want to help themselves, but not the rest.
29
Great story. I grew up in "the Far Northeast" as we call it, and remember hearing about The Badlands even as far back as two decades ago. That being said, for accuracy, Philly is separated into sections of neighborhoods, and Port Richmond and Kensington are most definitely not part of the Northeast Section. Kensington is technically it's own neighborhood as well as its own "section" (which includes Port Richmond and Bridesburg).
6
I worked in Port Richmind. They were quick to tell you that they were not Kensington.
4
Tragic tale but not surprising.
Humans like to get 'high' and one drug after another becomes the means: rum, gin, whiskey, opium ... the 1950s saw heroin overrun & destroy city neighborhoods such as Harlem like Bubonic Plague. 1960s saw relatively harmless marijuana and LSD, then speed, in short order PCP, then cocaine, then crack, then meth, oxycodone, spice, now heroin again, fentanyl ... the lessons of drug abuse were generational and will likely be so again: younger children watch their older siblings enter the streets and die, they learn to avoid the drugs altogether. Policing, rehab, reviving over-dosed users, none of these really make a dent.
Meanwhile, the most dangerous drugs are alcohol and tobacco, which together kill hundreds of thousands of Americans quietly, in the background. Humans like to get high ...
Bigger question is what is there to live for? To be a 'consumer', in corporate America; a kind of mindless, fleshy robot to be used once then discarded as trash, to live nowhere in particular, with no chance to contribute anything, to learn, to be a part of something bigger than themselves, to have a future. To kill an elephant or a bee or another human, the idea of these things has to be destroyed first; to justify, to eliminate the individual identities, to dehumanize, to introduce the profit motive and distill everything to figures on a screen.
These addicts died a long time before they found themselves on Kensington Avenue = not worth enough.
38
So this is what America has become. I don't have a clue as to what the answer is but obviously neither does anyone in authority.
25
@Steve
So we need new people in authority.
1
We can learn a lot from other countries: Singapore, Taiwan, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc.
They have very efficient policies towards people who sell hard drugs like heroin: the death penalty.
As a result, far fewer people are being destroyed by the poison of drugs!
26
@Peter I'd like to see the statistics to back up your claim. Because it's wrong.
4
@Peter Oh yes, many of these countries are dictatorships. I don't think you will get your wish, but if so, the results will probably not meet your expectations. By the way, those countries still have addicts.
3
This is absolutely not the way to go. The history of prohibition is soaked in blood around the world. I highly recommend Johann Hari’s “Chasing The Scream.” Use of drugs and mind altering substances is so deeply ingrained in the human experience that the law will never win this battle.
4
I just don’t feel sympathy for anyone who thinks life will get better if they inject heroin. Your choice. Your consequences.
26
@M Ah, so righteous! Do you live in the United States? If so, the problems described here and the humans who are engaged in these addictions, and their consequences, are also residents. Do nothing? Let cities degenerate to the point where nowhere is safe? You need not feel sympathy for any addict, but the reality is that their actions do affect you and much like the need for policing to protect others, the problem of adults addicted to narcotics and the behaviors associated do not just go away. Government exists in part to deal with problems in society and whether you have any sympathy for anyone with this particular problem, actual concerted actions are needed. Do you question this?
8
@M
Yes, thanks for your perspective, M. Except it’s not their consequences. Can’t you see?! Did you read the article? It’s the librarians’ consequence who watches people od’ing from across the street. It’s the children who watch addicts pooping on the corner and the kids parents who clean up needles every day, and watch as their neighborhood becomes less safe for their families. Get real, M.
15
We have our own "Methadone Mile", located around the hospitals, here in Boston. It's unbelievable. I went to BMC for an appt. and when sitting in traffic was surrounded by intoxicated people in the streets, openly shooting up, defecating on the sidewalk, etc. I was fearful somebody was going to fall into the path of my moving car. It was un-nerving. As was parking and walking in the vicinity. Surreal area.
39
I used to be an addict. I know what those places are like. They are where you see what humanity at it's most animalistic looks like. When you are an addict you are also an animal. You are an animal whose life revolves around opiates.
You will do anything and everything to get drugs. You will live without morality. You will live without friends.
I've been sober for 6 years now. I thank God I missed the fentanyl, that would have probably killed me. I went to rehab one time and then stayed in the rehab outpatient program for another 10 months. I was put on suboxone. I got my life together but it took me years and years. I'm grateful for how lucky I am to have insurance. In the end though it all comes down to willpower. You have to really really want to quit in order to even have a chance. You have to have a catharsis.
523
@Jacqueline, Thank you for sharing your life story. It is important to know that with proper medical support people can overcome their addictions.
34
@Jacqueline
I respect and admire your strength and courage.
32
@Jacqueline
I have no idea what you went through. But I laud your strength, courage, and resolve to get there, to heal, and to have started anew.
I wish you only happiness, good things, and only strong friendships and support from family and other loved ones to keep you going.
Be well, and be safe.
8
I live 1 block away from the Frankford Ave encampment. This article glosses over the fact that large pockets of Kensington are gentrifying quickly and they're selling brand new homes for $400,000+ within 100 yards of people shooting heroin on the street in the middle of the day. Kensington Courts is a 150-unit new housing structure with units "starting in the 200's" being built literally around the corner. All of this money pouring into the neighborhood, property taxes skyrocketing, but where's the money to help get these people off the street? To get the drugs off the street? To fix these incredibly complex problems?
A couple years ago when the gentrification was just taking off, these addicts were hidden away up on the old Conrail tracks-- out of sight, out of mind. The city decided it would be a good idea to clear out the tracks, but honestly where did they think these people would go? Now they're out in the open and cannot be ignored. Maybe it was necessary to see this horrible problem up close & force the residents of the neighborhood to pressure the city into finally doing something about it. Get these people help! Or at least get them bathrooms. I'm open to safe injection sites--they can be the first step to opening someone up to treatment. Find the major drug suppliers & get this stuff off the street. It's already a real-life Hampsterdam. Do some real police work & cut the head off the snake, and make the community safer for EVERYONE in it (homeless included)
199
@Chris
What size for 400k? In NYC, a 3BR for 400k is low income housing. Many studios are 500k-800k. If I heard someone in NYC bought a 3BR for 400k, I'd assume ghetto. In my zip, 3BR will run you 2.25mil minimum.
4
The gentrification of Kensington is quite amazing when you look at all these expensive houses, yoga studios and hipster joints sitting RIGHT NEXT to the heroin junkies shooting up in the open.
7
@richguy Since it does not pertain to the meat of the article; who cares how much housing costs in NYC. Housing prices vary everywhere you go in America. You can buy a mansion in some places for 400k with better air quality, clean rivers and lakes and zero people shooting up in the streets.
6
So we keep out immigrants that want to work but we subsidize drug users who cycle repeatedly in and out of expensive rehabs that obviously have low success rates? These people are the true scourge of society, blame it on drugs but they are weak. They suck up money, time and community goodwill, ruining areas where hard working citizens are trying to make an honest living. Let the users die, eventually their numbers will be reduced (natural selection if you will) and eventually the laws of nature will curb the epidemic ( on1ly the strongest will survive). Also they should all be spayed/neutered to prevent unwanted pregnancies and the continuation of weak willed people in society. Yes this sounds like a novel or Nazi program but if getting off heroin is that difficult then why even try to help? It’s like trying to help people with late stage cancer, 99% of them will die so offer a place where they can inject a big one and peacefully not be in pain any longer. We need to start thinking of the “whole” in this county vs the individual.
23
One has to have sympathy for the Marks of the world, but I feel much more for the Dawns- and their kids.
Without compassion, we humans would turn into monsters faster than you can push a plunger down a tube, but at some point compassion becomes enabling. Who wants to become an EMT just to "save" the same person from the same self-inflicted wound over and over and over again?
There is rising disgust with the enabling of the drug addict camps, wherever they are. A Republican is within a point or two of being elected governor of Oregon, despite a 20-point registration gap (and everything else), and a major factor is that even the ultra-liberal residents of Portland have had just about enough of the needles, feces and theft.
My question is, if Mark had known that he wouldn't be given food and Narcan, would he have landed in Kensington at all?
24
@Eric - A better question would be would Mark have landed in Kensington if he couldn't Google heroin markets on the east coast and get Siri to give him directions.
We have an "open-air drug market" like Kensington here in Seattle. It is literally a few blocks away from the Pike Place Market. The police know its going on in broad daylight on the downtown streets and they literally look the other way.
11
[[“There is one girl down there with blond hair,” Nancy said. “I literally see her go to the bathroom at least four times a day right there. She walks 10 steps out from the tunnel, with her back facing us, pulls her pants down and goes.]]
Once, I saw a woman perform this maneuver. Midday, major road, she squatted on top of a little berm in front of a fast food joint and left a steaming pile for someone else to clean up. Clearly she was an addict and homeless. Ironically, even thought the sign on the door said "Restrooms for customers only," I'm sure they would have made an exception in this case.
4
@Third.coast No they wouldn't. And that is part of the problem. Try dressing shabby and see if you can find a bathroom, much less a shower.
Everyone knows this, everyone fears it (having to look for themselves) and everyone knows the most effective solution would be to provide liberal accommodations.
That won't happen. Go figure.
2
Why are all the photos of individuals in this piece photos of women when homelessness and drug addiction are issues that primarily effect men?
6
@Asks Questions
It's all about women.
1
@Asks Questions Maybe the men didn't agree to be photographed, outside of the lead photo.
5
@Asks Questions - I was once homeless and can answer that question. Society feels that men are more capable of dealing with serious problems like war and they ignore the men. They focus on the poor women who have children and need help! And the women play it to their advantage. Just have a baby and suddenly DSHS bends over backwards to help you with food stamps and housing, with temp shelter, and counselors. Men? To the back of the line.
3
It is great that you did an article about all these privileged white people- along side the article using the extremely rich and privileged DT and Bret Kavanaugh as "representative of all the white men who feel they are losing ground". Something is being lost in translation. I think maybe it is that "white people" are not a monolithic group of similarly situated and motivated people and that narrative is degrading democratic voting.
6
Yet another example of how our government serves its people (cough cough hack hack). When we put social services front and center and the well-being of US citizens first, then the situation will change. Until our moral compass changes as a nation and its politicians regain morals and values that concern humanity, nothing will change. Hope is lost when others regard you as worthless. The only thing that matters is money. When we put people first, recovery from heroin addiction has a chance of success.
10
@Joanne Sorry. Drug addiction has been around forever so I'm not sure about your moral compass changing anything.
Why is this happening in Philadelphia and not in Singapore? Aren´t the Basic Needs of humans all over the world not the same?
Who cares about the families living in these places protecting the kids and clean up the mess?
9
"Gentrification is genocide." It is very poignant that someone was astute to paint that on a wall in Kensington. As the writer noted, this has been an ignored problem for decades in Kensington. It has its roots in the 60s actually. It is a microcosm of the evolution of the United States. Like many neighborhoods in Philly, it was almost like a small town in itself. Like many old cities in the country, Philly is a quilt made up of distinct neighborhoods. Kensington was a bustling,thriving place well into the the twentieth century.
For decades this problem existed, it used to be known as the meth capitol of the United States. Bikers and the Mob controlled it and then coke and crack...and there was always heroin. No one seemed to notice,or care.
The difference now is there is valuable land to be scoffed up by developers and the junkies are now white kids from the burbs. Suddenly, it is all hands on deck. The developers love highlighting the real estate tax abatements to prospective buyers so now the junkies are an inconvenient obstacle in their marketing brochures. Yeah, the drug market and their customers will move on to another neighborhood and in another thirty or forty years, we'll be reading about this again. So it goes.
21
With two opiate addicts in my family, I also tried every approach in the book. Change only comes when the addict wants to change. Providing them with opportunities to do so is key, but so is protecting the innocent people they hurt when they - repeatedly - reject help and allow the inherent selfishness of addiction to take over.
I have deep sympathy for these addicts but the nearby residents are truly the victims here. Shoving the consequences of your own addiction into someone else's life - especially when they don't have the means to escape - is truly cruel.
195
I know a heroin addict. All the money and the best facilities in the world couldn’t cure him. He stopped when the guilt and shame were too great to bear.
The disease model of addiction is pseudoscience.
32
@Mr. Grieves
I'm inclined to accept the Trainspotting model of addiction as being the most accurate.
Huh, I did too. Did because he's off H and doesn't need to get Methadone from the gov't anymore. He works s full time job now and helps support his grandma. He was in very deep. My experience isn't everybody's.. but honestly all I did was hang out with him for at least a few minutes every day, and offered to be a reliable source of transportation to the clinic. In the event of crazy weather or otherwise. I had the time for him. as I already said, my experience is probably rare. But I do feel the world would be a little different if people spent more time doing things they feel is right, rather than just typing or voting a certain way.
11
2 thoughts:
1) The girl who turned to heroin after being raped in college may be the saddest thing I've ever read.
2) Putting this on the local government is ridiculous. Local governments will have conflicting interests: be humane to the addicts but not so humane as to attract addicts from their neighboring towns. More drug fatalities yearly than the entirety of the Vietnam War. It would be nice if the federal government was working to fix this issue.
24
@Bob
I know several addicts and alcoholics well enough to have talked deeply about their lives. All of them have major trauma history, often dating back to early childhood. Childhood physical and sexual abuse are incredibly common among addicts. The day to day might be not good, but what they are really trying to 'escape' by getting drunk/high is the pain and shame of being abused.
I also know a several woman from solid families who have become addicts. Each one of them was raped.
I don't want homeless addicts in my neighborhood, but when I see them, I know that someone hurt these people VERY badly. The addict has certainly made bad choices about how to manage this pain, but as a society, we don't provide a lot of other options.
I think our best hopes of dealing with addiction are:
1. Encouraging addicts to get long term birth control (vasectomies/tubal ligration, IUDs). We don't need more children born into unstable situations.
2. Making long term birth control available to everyone for free. We need people choosing to have children when they are in stable relationships - not accidentally having children in unstable or volatile situations (almost half of pregnancies in the US are unintended).
3. Investing in mental heath care for children.
4. Investigating and punishing rapists and child abusers.
5. Investing in mental health care for the victims of rape and abuse.
We have to prevent the next generation of people from being so hurt that they turn to drugs.
22
@X
These are reasonable points, yet I think you're mistaken that all addicts have been abused or raped. For one thing, there are an awful lot of people who are abused or raped who DON'T become addicts. There have to be some other factors, or underlying (biological or environmental) anomalies, to explain why one person becomes addicted and another doesn't.
We have got to get a handle on this.
Once addicted these folks are a lost cause. We have got to intervene before people become addicted.
13
Sorry to say this - but the only conclusion I can reach here is no Narcan. I'd love to see any statistics on addicts who are brought back to life with Narcan and later go on to get clean. Likely impossible to gather data on this.
I'm politically moderate, sensible, with a big heart. This is a terrible epidemic but individuals and families should bear the brunt of the responsibility - not the government and residents. I sound like a heartless person but enough is enough. Agree with comments on dystopia.
69
@Liz
What is sensible about letting addicts die in the streets. Does the individual and the family clean that up too? No. The government and the communities do. Get real, Liz.
More than ten years ago, I recall viewing a televised documentary about the baffling resurgence of heroine, and Philadelphia being its gateway to the East coast. It was quite troubling then, and the fact that policing and political authorities did not take heed, hence, enabling the issue to envelope to this degree is equally troubling. It truly makes you wonder who's in the pockets of the Cartel, and aiding them in getting these narcotics from South America all the way to Philly.
12
While addiction is obviously a very complex issue, it’s nevertheless frustrating to see people who struggle with addiction refuse help repeatedly. It’s very selfish to keep refusing help when it’s offered on a silver platter when the alternative is to be a burden to everyone (I know the phrasing is harsh, but I believe it to be true). I suppose drug addiction must override the normal impulses of the brain and the social norms that would discourage that selfishness, but in the meantime, it’s grossly unfair to the residents of Philly who have to live in this squalor they’re not causing.
35
Maybe some current or former Purdue Pharma execs should be required to camp out here for a week.
25
@Adam
Yes. Along with their enablers at Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations
"Department of Public Health announced that the city would encourage organizations to develop supervised-injection sites, where people can bring their own drugs without fear of arrest…" "The city wanted to respond to the needs of the residents."
“They have no reason to go when everyone is giving them absolutely everything.”
These quotes are revealing. Who are the demented policy makers who have enabled this toxic situation to continue? The situation has gotten worse over the years with no solution in sight because of lack of enforcement and lack of insight into the situation. What happened to the concept of personal responsibility? Why are theses addicts and dealers portrayed as victims rather than criminals? Do the policy makes actually think that the existing situation is better for all concerned than clearing the area and imprisoning the dealers?
13
I hate when politicians are referred to as "progressive." I especially hate when a mayor is referred to as progressive but who cannot get the most basic government functions to work (trash collection, street cleanup, snow removal, property tax collection, etc) let alone do anything about a national epidemic that seems to have its epicenter in their city. Also, there is nothing progressive about filling libraries with narcan instead of books and having the largest poverty rate of any big city in the country!
27
As an actual resident of the City of Philadelphia—who is taxed eights ways ‘til Sunday—this article left me seething. Even though my property taxes have increased 40% in ONE YEAR and Philadelphia assesses its own capital gains and wage taxes, neither I, nor my fellow Philadelphians have seen any incremental improvements in our lives. In fact, our quality of life has deteriorated significantly over the last 2 years. And yes, I think it’s important to highlight how much revenue my family and others generate for the city because the mayor and the city council have failed to protect all of us. Drug dealers and suppliers are not arrested. If they are, lengthy sentences are not doled out. Philadelphia does not have a sustainable economy with any industry to support it. There is no job creation and the city has lagged the broad-based economic recovery in the U.S. These factors have created the perfect storm for what is happening today. I realize the complexity of this socioeconomic issue and public health crisis; however, please do not express sympathy toward Mayor Kenney. He and his shambolic policies have inflicted irreparable damage to this city. I also assign blame to the federal government which continues to deregulate the pharma industry, encourages corporations to run leaner, fails to protect its vets, and ignores a nationwide health crisis.
81
@Carpetbagger Yikes... 40%! As someone who has lived in and now lives near Chicago, I feel your pain when it comes to the lack of job creation. No easy answers in solving the epidemic, but not having jobs available just leads more people down the path of addiction.
6
@Carpetbagger
Well,maybe if every state and city weren't bending over backwards to lure the big corporations with tax "incentives" ,abatements, and so-called "enterprise grants", your taxes might not be rising as quickly. I assume though, you don't mind that your home value has risen, do you?
11
@MIB, thanks for your commiseration, and although Chicago and IL have their own set of problems, I still love the city dearly. Your sales and property taxes are no joke though.
@TimLynch, I agree there are deleterious effects from these race-to-the-bottom policies, though please don’t forget the residential property tax abatements, which are partly responsible for the upward pressure on Philadelphia real estate prices. I purchased my home in 2015 without one. Has it appreciated in price? Sure. 40% in one year? I don’t think so. Have inflation, wages, and interest rates gained 40% in those time frames? Nope. Not even the S&P500 has generated anywhere near a 40% return during the current bull market. We are 10 years out of a financial crisis and I remain highly skeptical of all inflated asset prices in this country, including the Philadelphia housing market. Perhaps you should ask the Chinese how they are enjoying their sky-high real estate values now, and also again a year from now. What’s happening in Kensington reflects years and years of booms and busts in economic cycles, with absolutely no recovery from the previous one. Thanks for trying to imply there was latent hypocrisy in my initial statement, though.
7
This is now a multi generational problem facing all communities in the US. Fueled by the cheap availability of prescription pain killers (oxycontin, oxycodone, ), availability of cheap heroin and now heroin mixed with deadly fentanyl the problem is an epidemic. It is a challenge that needs to be addressed with a full blown, multi faceted approach: shelters, sanitation, food, mental health care, and long term followup for those who can be convinced to take advantage of the services. We wiped out polio and measles and need to wipe out this scourge is the new public health crisis facing us. The cure for addiction should not be a slow process of rotting in the damp, filthy tent under an overpass until an addict dies....
8
[[Elvis Campos said “I didn’t know about the drugs when I came. I found the house, and it was cheap.” No one on his block used or sold drugs, he said, and his neighbors worked hard to keep it clean. But dealers were always around their homes trying to sell.]]
Before buying or renting a place to live, always talk to the mailman who has that route. He can tell you which properties have constant turnover of tenants, which are likely drug houses, and the general direction in which the area is heading...which properties have recently been renovated, etc.
Also, drive through the neighborhood at morning and evening rush hours to see which houses are active. And drive through at night to see which houses are blasting loud music or ave drug traffic.
And talk to the old timers who want to move but can't sell their homes at a decent price. They'll know exactly which buildings are drug houses.
5
@Third.coast
When low income people are often working two or more jobs in order to simply afford housing, they often don't have time or money to do this kind of time-consuming due diligence.
8
@eheck
[[low income people don't have time or money to do this kind of time-consuming due diligence.]]
So then they can live with the consequences.
I'm ok with that.
For what it’s worth, addiction has long been with us. My mother-in-law, now long dead, used to talk about taking the long way around walking home from school to avoid an encampment by a bridge where men drank sterno. The canned-heaters.
Pearl S. Buck spoke of the opium addict as a hollow reed. Fannie Hurst wrote about the ostensibly respectable morphine addict in the early twentieth century.
Among my friends, co-workers, and acquaintances I don’t know anyone not touched by this horror in recent years. I see it everywhere walking around the city, the train station, by the museums and tourist areas.
It makes one a slave. I don’t know the answer. What can people do when they are in legitimate pain, physical or mental, which is often the gateway to addiction? For those who enter addiction recreationally, I’m sure it’s initially not very different from other youthful risk-taking behaviors.
Both legal and illegal substances entrap equally. I just don’t know the answer. These are people, but in the throes if this slavery are hardly recognizable as such.
109
Of course you "don't know". Literature is ill-prepared to deal with this situation, and romanticizing these junkies serves no purpose here.
Youthful risk-taking behavior involving opioid abuse should not be condoned or tolerated. Over prescribing addictive medication should not be condoned and punished. There are alternate medications that do not lead to zombification, and our medical establishment needs to wake-up and mimic the procedures in countries that do not have this scourge.
Yes, we will have self-medicating, mentally ill addicts.
The ubiquitous anecdote of the patient whose pain medication leads to life on the street and/or death is too compelling to brush off as a continuous part of society.
Yes, I do know the answer. It is the competent, responsible prescription of pain medication.
1
Let's review. When anyone of any age living anywhere can get any drug they want any time they want it, the system is broken. Not only does decriminalization address this issue, but it also would have a huge impact on the incidence of petty crime, incarceration rates and prison costs that currently run taxpayers billions upon billions every year. And speaking of wasted money, how's that War On Drugs going? How about putting the cartels out of business? Would that be a bad thing?
People have to begin looking at the bigger picture and realize that this country's current approach to drugs is the very definition of insanity.
13
I am not a lifelong resident of my adopted city, just 19 years now, and am certainly not an authority - speaking just from my heart. Those of us who live here know that Kensington Ave under the El is a drug-ridden, dangerous place where very little light shines even on a sunny day. The writer of this article fails to mention that the neighborhood turns nicer a few blocks in each direction and that the El is probably the root cause for this location's problems. The drug addicts won't get cured if the El is torn down/turned into a tunnel/removed in some fashion but Kensington Ave could be given a chance to succeed. Anyone who has ever been to this area will agree with me that the El is a blight to the area and no program of change to Kensington can begin without some change to it. Blaming the drug problem on Democrats won't get us anywhere. I'm not sure how the Republican politicians differ from the Democrats on how to treat addicts, they should probably just stop talking and listen to the doctors, treatment specialists and people on the street.
8
I don’t think you can blame the El for the drug epidemic in Kensington. It’s a confluence of events and conditions that have led it to become ground zero for the heroin epidemic. That said, it doesn’t seem like the proposed solutions are going to work, either. But tearing down the El won’t take away the problem.
9
I doubt that removing public transportation would fix anything. It would only make it harder for working class residents to get to jobs they have elsewhere.
10
There's one place on the planet that has successfully dealt with a drug epidemic. Before 2001, Portugal had soaring addiction rates - one percent of its population was addicted to heroin (one of the highest rates in the world) and HIV rates were soaring.
In 2001, all drugs were decriminalized. Addiction was treated as a health crisis rather than a criminal offense. And in the 17 years since, addiction rates have dropped 75% and HIV rates by 95%.
Astonishing to me, given those stats, that Portugal, by nature a conservative country, may have come up with a long-term solution to a seemingly insoluble problem while the rest of us are still arguing about who to blame.
310
@jrsherrard
1% seems like a negligible amount. I'd say that over 50% of people I know are, in one way or another, dependent on alcohol.
If 99% of a population is NOT using heroin, I think that's very good. I went to a rich kids' college with a drug scene. I'd say that about 20% of the kids I knew snorted heroin and/or coke, and about 35% smoked a lot of weed. Furthermore, about 65% drank every weekend.
Honestly, I'd feel like it was a victory, if only 5% of the population were addicts (heroin, pills, alcohol).
4
They did a lot more than decriminalize - although they did do that - they also created a mandatory registry of drug addicts and aggressively expanded treatment and outreach and pushed people in. And they still have a lot of regulation - some of which is stricter than many cities here. They don’t allow open air drug markets or encampments. They ban addicts from associating with other addicts and from visiting certain places where drug use is prevelant. People can lose public benefits. Drug dealing is still illegal. They have free health care, including for treatment.
As you can see by this article, decriminalizing on its own doesn’t do much, especially at the neighborhood level. As a fellow Seattle resident, you should already know this though.
30
@jrsherrard I agree. I believe Portugal's approach could well be described as rational and realistic. And, yes, if a conservative and historically very catholic country like Portugal was able to do this, maybe there is hope for us here in the US! As for our evangelical conservatives, may I suggest reading the New Testament again? Jesus was quite clear about compassion for the less fortunate and downfallen as a key quality for his followers.
4
It's difficult to comprehend how a part of Philly less than 2 miles from my home is so different from where I am. We've frequently remarked on how our privilege has gotten us into a more safe, clean, and quiet neighborhood, but I frankly didn't realize just how different the situation was such a short distance away. I appreciate that Philly is willing to try just about anything at this point, because it's impossible to know what's going to work and everybody has to just keep trying.
8
@Lindsey,
Your privilege? You live in a safe neighborhood because you, and your neighbors, make the conscious decision not be commit crimes or to become addicted to drugs.
17
@Lindsey
In Manhattan, a neighborhood can change in 5 blocks
1
@WillT26
Also not being blown up by an IED in Iraq and having to use strong meds. Then becoming addicted and opting for the affordable fix for your habit. Get real, Will.
2
A progressive Mayor? A sanctuary city? A model for America? The city used to be a place of family residences, row homes, neatly maintained and populated by working people. Those people are fleeing to North Jersey and the Philadelphia suburbs. What amazes me is that they are bringing with them the same failed brand of city liberalism (Progressive) that failed the city in the first place. They left the city for a reason. Why change back to the political system from which they are fleeing? As long as the addicts are receiving freebies they will remain. I seriously doubt most are vets or in pain from illness. With all the safety nets now available by government and nonprofits there is no excuse to be on the streets and addicted. There is a limit to what the population can afford to accommodate and support these people. Chasing them from one place to another or fleeing to the suburbs is not the answer.
16
@Eddie It couldn’t be any clearer as to the cause of addiction, degradation, and homelessness like that described in this article. It isn’t liberalism--it isn’t any “ism” at all (although, as a liberal, I would prefer to blame conservatism gone wrong)--it is our policy of criminalizing drugs.
We need to take Portugal’s approach, de-criminalize drugs, and treat all addiction as an illness.
I agree with you that chasing people from one place to another is not the answer. The answer is treating people as we would wish to be treated, were we in their circumstances. And yes, drug use starts, for most people, medically, and yes, many are veterans, particularly of Afghanistan and Iraq.
7
@Eddie
With all due respect, you have no idea what you are talking about. As a lifelong Philly resident, I can tell you that there have been manifold changes- largely very positive- due to that "brand of city liberalism". As an example, people are moving into Philly like never before. The flight that occurred in past years was due to the Great Migration of the 50s and 60s, when neighborhoods started to change their, shall we say, complexion. White fear, and yes, racism, was the reason these neighborhoods changed. This is a well-known fact, and it's not theory. With all of that "failed brand of city liberalism" today's Philly has no problem with a very diverse- and productive- populace. By and large, Philadelphians welcome and embrace this diversity.
By the way, as a vet, I am horrified and insulted by your contention "I seriously doubt most are vets or in pain from illness". And those safety nets you seem to think are so freely available- especially to vets? These are disappearing daily, thanks to the current administration.
It must be very easy for you to opine from your perch in Arizona. And your opinion offers nothing in the way of a solution or even commiseration about a very unfortunate public health problem that affects a growing number of people- it's nothing short of invective.
55
@Eddie
So. If the city was being run by conservatives with conservative policy's the narcotic problem wouldn't be as severe? Your oversimplification shows how little you really know about the problem. To attribute a problem such as addiction to politics is wishful thinking. This is a human problem. Addiction is a disease. If you don't agree that it's a disease take it to the AMA since they came up with the classification.
7
How can people whose started on pain killers end up shooting up, and a so called solution that is even more expensive is available but the cost is out of reach for so many? I have a child with mental health issues who could easily be one of the homeless addicts portrayed here. It cost 1000$ a month for insurance. Insurance doesn’t want to pay for suboxone after paying almost 500$ a month for 60 8 mg strips, it was approved for 50$ but then the doctor wants $150 a visit. So after initial intake or short term treatment whose following up to see if this solution is available longer term? Do you think any of these people have the thousands to spend on treatment? Seems like insurance companies and doctors are greedier then dealers.
41
@Cathy: What "mental health issues" require oxycontin?
6
I've paid over $24,000 for suboxone over the last 5 years. You just gotta pay if you want care in America. I have good insurance and I still had to pay. Insurance wont pay for the strips, only pills.
3
Self medicated became addicted to Roxie 200mg daily,
1
“This is America” where denial is reigns.
Here in wealthy Orange County, CA, drug abuse is rampant, and even seniors are dying of opioid abuse:
Center for Health Journalism Fellowships Blog
Why are Orange County retirees dying of opioid overdoses?
By Jill Louise Replogle
October 26, 2017 https://www.centerforhealthjournalism.org/2017/10/19/why-are-orange-coun...
"The city of Laguna Woods, a retirement community in Orange County where the median age is 77, has the highest drug and alcohol death rate in Orange County. Accidental prescription opioid overdoses account for the majority of those deaths.
Orange County as a whole has more than twice the rate of opioid-related deaths as neighboring Los Angeles County. The epidemic is hitting hardest among people in their golden years. And yet the causes and consequences of Orange County’s opioid problem remain largely out of the public eye."
12
@Oceanviewer, Perhaps some of these elders are intentionally checking out? Getting old can be a painful experience, especially in this country.
6
Another big city controlled by Democrats who refuse to deal with the exploding homeless and addicted population. The same thing is happening in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago. What do these liberal enclaves propose to do to protect law abiding citizens from the scourge of the drug addled and the aggressive homeless? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
32
@paul
Another big city controlled for- and by tycoons, like all the cities in all the countries of this world as has been the case throughout much of history.
Addicts and homeless are not Democrats or Republicans, there are no billionaires living in cardboard boxes on the streets in Philadelphia.
This common error is confusing cause and effect: the tycoons are responsible for the addicts and homeless in the first place, they are deemed to be worthless and the drugs are the means to dehumanize them if not kill them outright. They are the collateral damage of the corporate autocracy that cares for nothing but 'wealth' obtained on the cheap.
Tycoons are good at deflecting responsibility for their actions, good at blaming the victims.
2
@paul
In the Midwest, the opioid epidemic is worse in conservative rural areas than in the cities. I live in Ohio, so I've seen it with my own eyes. Here something else to ponder: Once the connections dry up in the rural areas, the rural addicts invade the cities to try to score, so it would be nice if the conservative rural enclaves would do something about their drug-addled so they stop moving to our cities to become aggressively homeless and continue their downward spiral.
2
@paul Gosh last time I was in Ogden it seemed like it was a problem there too. Maybe start looking for solutions. For one it is just ridiculous that folks hand out food without providing at least porta-potties. I think that it makes sense to provide minimal shelter in order to save neighborhoods from this sort of thing, homeless feeds drug abuse as much as drug abuse feeds homelessness. Decades of trying to solve the problem by providing housing only to those who appear to "stay clean" clearly does not work. And allowing people to relieve themselves anywhere, because you fear providing them a place to do so appropriately will increase homelessness, costs society quite a bit, for the few it keeps from becoming homeless.
Why can't the source be stopped? These people need help, not just a clearing of camps.
4
@Liz watkins there are laws to prevent people from being picked up and committed to a hospital for treatment. What needs to happen is to reopen the mental health institutions, expand them to include drug treatment, and then just picking up and hospitalizing people.
11
America...
40K dead a year to opiods
30K dead a year to guns
Slashing funding for schools and healthcare
It's a modern day dystopia.
287
@Chris
40k is sad, but it's a tiny percentage of the US population. What percentage of the Irish develop alcohol-related liver problems?
5
Sadly, I think you're correct.
3
@Chris
400,000 Americans die every year from smoking cigarettes. Complicated does not begin to describe the depth of the problems in our society. However, a real sustained investment in Healthcare, education and families and PEOPLE (corporations don’t count) could get us to a better place, in time.
5
The article’s purpose seems aimed at shocking via anecdote, and is filled with assumptions and assertions that are unsupported. A mayor is “progressive”. The areas problems exist because of a lack of investment in the city, etc. These are assertions that belie a specific predisposition of the author and really take this piece away from being an unbiased account of the state of affairs in Kensington, which is clearly tragic.
16
If a certain percentage of those who try an drug become addicted, then you need to intervene before people try the drug. What misery is driving this crisis? Surely some of it is from poor prescription practices, but just as surely there are other things driving the use of these narcotics. Where is the investment in these communities, these schools, the mental healthcare...If the focus on the end state problems is futile, there needs to be a focus on the days before the first use of these drugs.
13
This article is quite sad, but I am still unclear why targeting the dealers isn’t a strategy in play. The article mentions that more pop up, but how are you ever going to make the area less of a hotspot if people from around the country know you can score heroin within moments of getting off the train? If it’s so easy to find a dealer every hour of every day, shouldn’t it be easy to arrest a dealer at the same rate?
98
@Liz
If you really go hard and arrest all the dealers and such, the drug circus will just move to another location - and you start all over.
3
@Liz Sweeping up street dealers is like playing whack-a-mole. Most of them deal to support their own using. The ones we really want found and caught are their suppliers and the bosses of those suppliers. Those are much harder to find and catch. I sometimes wonder if the re-orientation of the FBI and massive reallocation of federal law enforcement resources to anything "anti-terrorism" didn't set us up for this tidal wave of illegal hard drugs getting imported and sold in the US with such ease. When heroin is cheaper than oxy pills on the street, heroin supply is clearly not a limiting factor.
5
Looking at Google Street Map, Kensington Avenue under pass, in the picture taken by Google Map in August 2016, the fire hydrant was not yet leaning, and there was no camping ground. This drug camp is fairly recent.
2
@Avi It might have moved blocks but when I lived in Philly 6 years ago this was the reputation of Kensington.
4
@Avie The article describes how the city cleared the railroad gulch in 2017, shifting drug users to other parts of the neighborhood.
3
The reason people are dying is that the product is often adulterated so they don't know what they are injecting. As horrible as addiction is, might it not be better to make it legal so that addicts could buy products of known purity and thus avoid accidental overdose? We let adults drink and smoke despite the known harm they are doing to themselves. Why not let them shoot up?
30
Yeah, legalize opium, they can smoke it. and fall to sleep, it won't kill them as fast as fentanyl.
2
@Andrew Terhune Everyone is a potential addict. Legalizing heroin, making using it easier and less socially unacceptable for people who wouldn't be disposed to go to places like Kensington would create millions of new addicts, destroying that many more lives.
14
@PWR No, not at all.
One notable detail about Philly is how it has been in an economic boom for years with little sign of letting up. The city, well parts of it anyway, are revitalized and flush with investment, jobs, growth and new construction. Despite this, the stark contrast between signs of wealth and prosperity and human squalor cannot be missed. It is a complicated problem, but the City is never going to be able fix it. The city's economic structure is crippled and failed through decades of mismanagement and grift. Jobs are filled with incompetent political appointees just trying to get rich. The schools are broken, the police are broken, the jails are broken, there are hoards of homeless and addicts creating a public health crisis on a daily basis. If it weren't for all the "Ed's and Med's" and commercial investment, the whole city would resemble Kensington.
12
@Ricky Isn't the last sentence true of most cities. Take away Eds, Meds, and commercial investment, and you have a failed city.
3
Why isn’t the issue of mental health and homelessness even mentioned here? This is a sad, sad situation for every human being involved. It reads like a nightmare.
65
How about going after the cause instead of treating the effects?
12
@Kurt Pickard
We are listening - please elaborate.
8
@Kurt Pickard
There are many more causes than one, as to why people turn to and become addicted to drugs, especially heroin and drugs like that. Familial upbringing can be a cause, and so can growing up in poverty, people with learning and/or developmental delays, lack of social and academic skills, loneliness, and lack of parental guidance while growing up, as well as physical and mental trauma. Yet, at the same time, people who become addicted don't have to come from low-to-moderate income backgrounds, or from run-down urban areas. Addicts come from all walks of life.
Having said all of the above, various emotional problems can and often enough will result in addiction. The people who end up being rehabilitated end up doing so by themselves.
1
I live a mere block away from this scene. Not mentioned here is the increase in property value, brand new houses being built in empty lots, and thriving restaurants/bars that extend from Fishtown along Frankford Avenue down to Lehigh Avenue, where a long awaited food co-op is expected to open. Lehigh intersects all encampments areas mentioned in this article. Both sides of the tracks suffer from this epidemic on a daily basis. I think it's worth mentioning here that both sides of the tracks suffer daily as witnesses to this epidemic. The hopes of improvement is stifled on one side and poverty is seemingly ignored on the other.
42
@JnCh So glad you mentioned this. I've lived in this area for almost 20 years now. The line of development (half million dollar houses) now runs right up to these encampments. It's one of the big reasons we are now seeing these exposes and hearing talk of safe injection sites. Big money urban revitalization is crashing into the opioid epidemic in a raging pitch battle of American copious consumption. Who wins out?
20
We lost the war on drugs, time to declare victory and use the law enforcement money to set up medically supervised safe clinics where users can get proper medical treatment. If that means they stay on the drug with managed care, so be it. It is better than what's going on now, plus the prison population could be greatly diminished with additional taxpayer savings.
80
The saddest line here is that heroin is cheaper than painkillers for someone suffering from an IED-related injury.
505
@orangecat An improvised explosive device (IED) is certainly not the main reason people are seeking out a life of getting high. No matter your choice of drugs, the behavior is more related to a basic human need to escape. Work and family often fill those needs, but all too many do not have the basic skills to work and create healthy families. The decline of our nation is related to declining self-worth and lack of being needed. Even the strongest among us will eventually fall into addictive behavior when we are perceived as worthless.
56
@Ron Bannon Umm Ron, I think @orangecat is making reference to the fact that we do not take care of out Veterans. Injured or not, they are on their own when they return home with very little help.
9
@orangecat - Don't be so easily pull by the nose. IED injury medication is provided free by the VA.
18
What is the National Guard for if not situations like this? Surround the area, clear the camps, arrest the dealers and institutionalize the addicts. Ship those from out of the area to the places whence they came. Keep troops deployed until the neighborhood isn’t a center of gravity for this behavior anymore. Above all, legalize drugs and spend the money we’ve been wasting on a Sisyphean effort to eliminate drug traffic to treat and prevent instead.
184
@Hapax Legomenon
"What is the National Guard for if not situations like this?"
As a Superstorm Sandy victim, I can attest that sealing off Cities to protect residents from looters and violence, patrolling a decimated, darkened City for weeks in order to protect residents from violence in the wake of a natural disaster, &distributing bottled water and blankets are some of the functions that the National Guard performs.
1
The War on drugs has been raging for years now and it seems to be a lost cause. Clearly we have not hit upon the answer. Blaming Drs and pharmaceutical companies who’s greed surly added to the mix is one aspect to think about. But throwing the baby out with the bath water is no answer. Incarceration has proven to be foolish. No I believe we still are looking in the wrong direction. No answer here.
9
@J Clark
The only trouble is, however, that because heroin is illegal, addicts can and often enough do resort to crimes, including violent crimes, in order to get it. When people commit crimes, especially violent crimes, such as muggings, beatings, burglaries, and murders to get their fix, they can expect to serve a jail sentence, as a consequence.
1
The time to stop a problem like this is before it begins. That takes eyes (and feet) on the street to nip it in the bud. Instead of continuing to militarize our police, going back to foot patrols and engaging in community outreach could have a huge effect. Only by familiarizing oneself with the territory can one understand how this scourge is allowed to spread. Citizens are no less to blame in our alienated society where the cocoon comfort of the automobile has become the primary tool for disengagement from the physical environment. It's no wonder that people are heedless of the the impending climate catastrophe, the space outside their doors is of little concern. Someone else is taking care of it, in their minds. As long as a problem is shunted out of sight, it's not a problem for them. Strongman tactics and vigilantism will solve this homeless problem if it is left to fester. What else are people to do? The ones with money needn't worry, their communities are protected.
12
I worked in the Shipyards in the San Francisco bay area for decades, beginning in the mid-1970s, and I knew dozens of high-functioning heroin addicts. Though their lives outside of work seemed perpetually disorganised, on the job, virtually all were thoroughly competent and professional, indeed, several who were amongst the hardest workers on the graveyard shift machinery repair gang I supervised. I don’t kid myself by imagining “it all worked out fine” for these guys, with the disappearance of industrial America, those jobs are long gone, along with the pay checks that supported their habits, but my point I guess, is that drug use, even addiction, in and of itself doesn’t mean an individual is only fit to live under a railroad viaduct.
240
@Glenn Baldwin: is there one person here who strikes you as a "hard worker"? Whom you'd trust around your loved ones -- or around heavy machinery?
I can't explain your friends 45 years ago, but maybe the heroin was not as strong? or laced with fentanyl?
7
@Glenn Baldwin I was stationed in Germany in the US Army April 1973 to October 1974. Heroin use was rampant in my unit, and was so cheap most users just snorted it rather than injecting it. We were an armored combat battalion and at least 1/2 of the soldiers used illegal drugs, and many others were abusers of alcohol. The Army regularly sent people to dry out in a Frankfurt hospital but never succeeded in stopping it. Very few soldiers were ever punished for it, and many of the users were "lifers".
3
I just finished Beth Macy's "Dopesick" in which she examines the horror that is our country's opioid epidemic. Addiction is hell for the users, but also for the traumatized communities forced to witness this grotesque scourge.
152
Exactly. I really feel for the first responders, like the guy quoted, who “save” the same people night after night, often multiple times in the same night. It really shakes your humanity to provide Narcan to people who clearly, and selfishly, expect other people to save them from themselves. So is that then enabling the addiction? That is the million dollar question.. and if so then what?
14
@Stephanie B
We need to stop reviving people. Or at least repeatedly. Its not the whole solution, but its part of it. Crazy making.
3
@Stephanie B
My understanding is that there are proven methods for addressing heroin addiction in holistic ways, but none of the methods are slam-dunk perfect for every user, and all of the methods require physical/mental healthcare coordination.
1
I remember when publicly shooting up Heroin was not socially accepted, and mainly a problem of the black community. So the answer was put them in jail. Lock the door and throw away the key. Now that "respectable people" are shooting up publicly we have some of these blue light bulbs for the front porch as a deterrent , and then say there is nothing much more we can do .
234
@Robert: jail is an extremely expensive solution. And BTW, I don't see a racial element here.
I'm against drug abuse and drug dealers. I don't care what race they are. They need a heavy dose of "tough love" and not this constant pandering (free needles, injection facilities, etc.).
They clearly want to die. Let them.
5
“The narrative of the opioid crisis is focused on big-pharma greed...” And it doesn’t matter how many times that narrative has been shown FALSE, the media and the CDC keep repeating it over and over, resulting in disastrous policies at huge cost to taxpayers and to millions of people who needlessly suffer because depriving them of necessary pain relief is supposed to magically prevent drug addicts from killing themselves w/the drugs in this article—drugs that killed 74,000 in the last 2 1/2 yrs; but from 2002–2016 opioid Rxs deaths ranged between 9,000–19,000 (half the # of deaths due to accidental falls. Are we having an Accidental Fall Epidemic? Why not?).
I’ve don’t know how many times I’ve read in CDC and DEA reports: “Law enforcement strategies to reduce the illicit opioid supply must be supported” (but I read the reports, not CDC PR material), but the only “strategies” policymakers have been to come up with assumes that medical professionals are purveyors of illicit fenantyl and heroin.
I used fentanyl patches—best tx for chronic pain—for years before the govmt concluded MY meds were hazardous to drug addicts and made sure I was unable to get MY medicine, not for pain, not even for tapering (that DIY taper was not healthful). Drug addicts must have the best lobbyists. No amount of taxpayer $ and effort—“safe sites” to shoot up w/ clean needles, nurses w/Narcan—even when it imposes suffering on others, is too great to ensure their wellbeing.
40
@Lee: I agree wholeheartedly. 85% of those who need pain meds legitimately are not at risk of addiction. i took vicodin, oxycontin and tramadol after knee surgery and I can't even imagine dealing with that level of pain without appropriate meds.
However, I hated the feeling of being "out of it" and had awful nightmares the whole time. In under 10 days, I had tapered MYSELF off of the drugs, and only used OTC stuff like Aleeve the rest of my recovery. I never got addicted, and I was given HUGE quantities of pain meds -- like 180 Vicodin at a time, REFILLABLE.
The difference? I'm not morally superior to anyone. I just didn't want to be high in a stupor all day, and i had a life I loved and wanted to get back to.
5
I live roughly 20 miles from Kensington, and yet it seems as unreal to me -- although it must be real -- as something that was contrived in a horror movie. How does this come to be only a short distance from where one rarely even smells tobacco smoke or sees a discarded cigarette butt in 2018? Is this also going on around us here, and we simply are unaware that it is happening -- driving people to Kensington?
Perhaps someone knows and knows as well how to reverse and prevent such horror. I certainly do not. That I confess.
5
What a dystopian nightmare. Squalor, degradation, fear, desperation. Mothers using heroin, abandoning any pretense of parenting. Neighbors surrounded and afraid to go outside.
Find some other way to deal with this, current methods are not working. Try Portugal's way. Try it! It can't be any worse and might make things better.
47
Philly was always a tough town, but this...The help will come from within, not from out of touch politicians who have no idea.
6
@Tim Moffatt: Philadelphia county is surrounded by a ring of affluent, relatively crime-free suburban communities that function as seperate worlds in themselves. In population they collectively are larger than Philadelphia proper. Most are far from "tough" but rather quiet, somewhat genteel suburbs with a high standard of living. Many, perhaps most who live in that ring of upscale communities work, shop, and socialize there as well. They rarely see much of Philadelphia beyond visits to musical concerts,sporting events or the airport. They accept none of its problems as their own. The inner city neighborhoods such as Kensington are as foreign to them as they are to you. That separation is a big part of the problem.
57
The same is true of Baltimore. You can go fewer than 15 miles from the neighborhoods made famous by "The Wire" and find yourself in leafy suburbs of single family homes whose owners only go into the city for ballgames and shows.
1
Kensington may be just 4 miles from the center of Philadelphia, but residents of swanky neighborhoods like Rittenhouse Square, Washington Square, or Society Hill are so well insulated from all that unpleasantness it might as well be happening on Mars... Perhaps there'd be more urgency if open drug use started cropping up in that type of area (as is the case in Seattle where one is bound to see an addict using at some point and some public bathrooms even have lower stall doors as a deterrent...)
It is so sad. They are like the walking dead. And we seem helpless in providing long last help.
12
The land of the free and the home of the brave.
One can only feel sorry for and sympathetic to the individuals caught in this human ringer. The system and its politicians all made promises to all that they can only deliver to the middle class - what's left of it - and up.
And we act as though the money goes to the little guys who sell on the street and a few mafia thugs. What if the money goes all the way up and has for years?
What if the CIA never dismantled its for-profit drug deals from Central America that funded its secret ops or if our love of Afghanistan is a fight for its heroin and the trips to see Aung San Suu Kyi AND the generals were to lock China out of Burmese heroin.
Could that be why dope is so cheap in Philly? would it explain why we only denounce and catch foreigners who wholesale drugs?
Is it really too difficult to dissect and treat or is it simply blocked by our system?
7
Or what if deranged conspiracy theories distract from the actual causes of, and solutions to, our social problems?
31
What a dreadful mess.
I feel sorry for the people trying to live in that neighborhood!
Maybe the city should buy them out & turn the whole neighborhood into a junky haven; use the whole place for their "safe" site. I understand the ravages of addiction, but the city should be doing more to help its working, tax-paying citizens.
23
The article is full of things the city is trying to do. Did you read it?
11
@Dan: the article is pandering -- it is chock full of things the city is doing to HELP ADDICTS and basically support their drug HABITS and let them stay addicted.
There is not one thing here done to help the community of decent, law-abiding SOBER citizens and taxpayers.
Every dime spent on an addict is money poured down a rathole.
2
Hope this makes the employee lounge at Purdue Pharmaceutical.
30
No problem. We're legalizing marijuana as an answer.
7
@red sox 9
Yes, cannabis. The one thing the article DID NOT mention. And it's the one thing that's not addictive or has people overdosing, living on the streets. It should be legalized. Now, alcohol on the other hand...
36
It's a good first step.
7
@Mr. Slater..The THC component of Cannabis is neuro toxic to the developing brain.. and brains are developing into our 20's. I would also argue it IS addicting from what I have observed in family members and others. There is a sobering report out called "Lessons Learned After 4 Years of Marijuana Legalization" looking at statistics from Colorado and Washington State. It states, accurately, that more data is needed, but is scary enough as is... I wish my state had waited a few years to study what is happening in CO an WA before putting out the vote for legalization of marijuana. But of course, big $ is now invested in the industry and some people are going to get very rich...
3
I knew what would happen in the first few paragraphs that described the Kensington cleanup. It is like squeezing a balloon. You squeeze one part and the balloon expands in another part. I did not read anywhere of any part of all the "programs" that there was a concerted effort aimed at the drug dealers. It seems they are instrumental in solving this problem. They are the cockroaches. They will survive a nuclear winter unless there is an intervention with them.
21
@Janet
From the Philly Inquirer, 10/4/18
"An extensive Kensington-based drug trafficking organization has been dismantled with the arrests of 57 people, District Attorney Larry Krasner said Thursday.
The arrests, targeting what is widely considered the geographic epicenter of Philadelphia's drug crisis, were for the sale of fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, crack, and other drugs, Krasner said at a news conference at his Penn Square office. The arrests include street-level dealers and leaders of the enterprise, called the Alameda Drug Trafficking Organization.
Sixteen Alameda properties were targeted, Krasner said, and authorities confiscated about 4.5 pounds of cocaine, nearly 2.5 pounds of crack cocaine, and more than 8 pounds of heroin. In addition, investigators seized more than $285,600 in cash, 15 vehicles, and eight firearms, Krasner said."
http://www2.philly.com/philly/news/crime/kensington-drug-bust-alameda-la...
7
I lived in Center City Philadelphia, on Washington Square, for years, having moved there from Washington, D.C.
Every word of this article is true.
11
Just another case of privatizing profit and socializing misery. Purdue pharmaceuticals, that sociopathic company that assiduously peddled their highly addictive drug under the pretext that is was absolutely *not* addictive should be forced to put up rehabilitation centers in hubs across America to help bring those haplessly addicted to recovery. What an absolute nightmare.
Read Dreamland, by Sam Quinones, to get an in-depth history of how companies like Purdue have destroyed lives, towns, and actually caused untold death upon America. It's time we bring our focus to the companies that cause humanity's great scourges: tobacco, big pharma, big ag, and one can't forget--the fossil fuel industry.
188
@Regina Valdez: I absolutely blame Purdue, but remember most of their shenanigans happened during the 8 years of the OBAMA Administration, which knew about this and did NOTHING.
Trump did not create this opioid madness in only 20 months.
Also: "Dreamland" by Sam Quinones is the very best book on this subject I have read -- and I believe written in 2014 -- and Quinones places the blame just as much as drug dealers who come out of a particular region in Mexico and who exploit illegal aliens to distribute the drugs, and TARGETED (!!!) white customers in a very deliberate, calculated way.
4
Another stunning and unforgettable book, on this problem and Purdue's role in it, set in Virginia and the surrounding countryside rather than an urban one, is
*Dopesick : dealers, doctors, and the drug company that addicted America*
1
"...Narcan, an overdose-reversal spray." Narcan is an overdose halting drug, not an overdose-reversal drug.
Narcan knocks opiates from the receptors in the brain, fills them, and blocks them from opiates. After anywhere from half an hour to an hour, Narcan's effects wear off. If there are still opiates in the addict's system, they can become high again or overdose again.
11
@Marc Erickson: Narcan is a temporary solution to a much larger problem.
Note the woman who had gotten Narcan 9-10 times and is still out on the street getting high.
I've read of cases where the EMTs gave ONE PERSON Narcon 4-5 times in a single day.
There isn't enough Narcan on the planet to give to this many addicts 4-5 times a day.
Narcan is ENABLING addicts to stay addicted. They think "it's OK if I overdose, the EMTs will just give me Narcan".
6
Legalize the Drugs. Let Legal adults get prescriptions, then fill those prescriptions with seized, purified and tested drugs. The decades long "War on Drugs" is an utter failure. The only groups benefitting are the Dealers and Law Enforcement, i.e. the criminal " justice " system.
Legalize, Tax and regulate Drugs. It's the logical solution.
68
Like alcohol. No societal problems with that drug.
1
One of the most flawed approaches is using an opioid replacement drug like suboxone. Yes it replaces opioids but the withdrawal is just as bad coming off suboxone as the other opoids and don’t let any pharmaceutical company tell you differently. Also, many treatment centers make the addict suffer in the old school addiction approach thinking. If they suffer through withdrawal with only “comfort” meds (nausea meds, OTC pain relievers, and drugs like Gabapentin and Lyrica) they believe addicts won’t go out again. Well, they go out again when the suboxone is taken away or it leads them to get the suboxone and then increase their usage to surpass the naloxone that prevents the high. I met one young woman who was getting suboxone treatment from a rehab doc, then she bought extra suboxone on the street, plus 80 mg of oxycodone and then she started snorting heroin. Addicts need a drug that will allow their body to go through withdrawal whole blocking the body’s ability to feel and experience withdrawal. Until that is accomplished, suboxone will keep people locked into this cycle. Alcoholics and benzodiazepine abusers get weaned off using benzodiazepines. Because the medical community sees opioid withdrawal as non-life-threatening, they perpetuate the myth that suboxone treatment and painful withdrawals will help these people. There is nothing further from the truth and it’s why so many of those addicts didn’t choose treatment—which they’ve been though multiple times already.
16
@Olderwiser
Suboxone isn't an opioid replacement; it is a partial opioid antagonist. If used correctly, it will prevent an addict from getting high, while also lessening withdrawal symptoms and satisfying the brain's need for opioids.
If an addict uses more drugs in an attempt to get high "over" a drug like Suboxone, then they aren't a candidate for this kind of drug, because they aren't actually ready to get clean. It should be reserved for people who sincerely want to be compliant and get their life back together. People taking Suboxone also should not drink alcohol or use other drugs, like benzodiazapenes. These combinations can be fatal.
This woman you met was abusing Suboxone, whether she meant to or not--perhaps she did not understand how the drug worked, but she didn't actually want to be clean if she decided to take oxycodone and heroin.
Suboxone *works* when used properly and in compliance with a knowledgeable addiction doctor and takes 3 days to wear off, which would make the use of any opioid pointless within that time frame. People demonizing it, attempting to abuse it, or failing to use it properly will result in its being taken off the market, which would be a big problem for the people who use it successfully and correctly. Please read actual medical literature on this substance before telling people what a bad drug it is.
35
The problem is that the reward system of the brain gets permanently damaged from drug addiction. The intense cravings may be near impossible to overcome so suboxone or methadone may be required over the long term.
5
I am appalled and disgusted at the absolute lack of personal responsibility shown by the opioid addicts in this story and similar stories. No matter how many times options for recovery are provided, no many how many times Narcan is adminstered to bring them back to life from an overdose, many of these people choose the easy path of continuing to shoot-up heroin. I have no sympathy and little empathy for people who time and time again choose poorly when given options to pull themselves together.
118
@GTM
I have to agree. I don't have an answer for the opioid crisis, but I do know some former addicts--the job holding kind, which I admit is likely easier to come back from, but it's still a struggle. People who successfully stay off drugs take 100% responsibility for their previous actions and work hard to make sure they don't even come close to their former bad habits.
13
@GTM,
Your attitude (and the attitudes of so many others) only ensures this problem will continue and never be resolved.
4
@GTMand
Your attitude ensures this will never end. Continue to have no sympathy and little empathy and watch the country disintegrate into apathetic, desperate lonely forlorn hopelessness and further tragedy as those who do continue to turn their gaze, concern or care away and hope these people and their problems go away...but such attitudes only ensure they will continue to be and to come and to be avoided until it seems they are everywhere...the result of avoiding and not doing enough to ensure the problems and the underlying causes remain a continuing recruiter and creator of more victims, much more suffering and further distanced concern making sure it never goes but is fanned and forced to keep going on and on.
Because you and so many others, let it keep on keeping on and on.
4
This scourge is growing, its unreal how many do drugs. Basically to escape reality, or pain, or dysfunction, social ills like housing that is too expensive. Vicious cycle impossible to break.
In beautiful supernatural BC we got the same problem and its growing we have had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds more die in the last 2 years fentanyl related, we have burgeoning homeless camps with people of the same ilk like one of the addicts said in the article "one big dysfunctional family" they feel less of outcasts together. Expect more.
Complex of course now when you let the problem get out of hand.The resources from a previous right business oriented gov't limited health care funding here, closed a major mental illness institution and support systems, and brought the compromised vulnerable to the streets. No direction home these, no hope.
The costs are astronomical paramedics man-hours, emerg rooms full. Now everyones on the band wagon in Canada with cannabis legalization huge corporate profits the next big thing... stock in sky mode yet no support infrastructure on abuse. Well,maybe we will fund a task force.
9
Doctors need to stop using opioids for every procedure and sending patients home with prescriptions that addict them. Shame on the medical community of doctors and big pharma that created these drugs and continue to use them. My daughter was prescribed oxy when she had her wisdom teeth out, how ridiculous! Everyone needs to accept a little pain for a short term issue such as that, to avoid the chance of a lifetime of addiction. Extreme chronic pain is another story, but these drugs are prescribed after nearly every surgery. Reform and regulation of opioid prescriptions is long overdue.
380
@Clancy
I too was given a script twice for oxy after a couple of dental procedures (implants). I refused to even have them in my home. A couple of aspirin worked just fine. Push back on the scripts!
16
@Clancy I too received 10 pills of oxycodone after my impacted wisdom teeth were removed. as are many (if not most) people getting their wisdom teeth out, I was a legal adult and had never had any opiates before. I took the pills but did not have to use all of them. could I have survived without? sure, although it would not have been fun. the opiates alleviated unnecessary suffering. why not take them, as that is their purpose?
by contrast, as a child I had operations on my eyes, no opiates were offered or needed. they are not handed out indiscriminately as you suggest.
these drugs exist for a reason, and the doctors who 'created' them (opium has been around for centuries and is of course found in the natural world) are not evil for doing so. why would you tell someone to suffer when they do not have to? why would you tell a cancer patient to suck it up when it is possible for their pain to be reduced?
two real problems come to mind as far as prescription opiates are concerned. the first is that doctors at the hospital I worked at (and many others) were evaluated in part on their press-ganey scores, essentially patient satisfaction- which goes up if you tend to prescribe opiates. this affects their job status.
the second is the improper management of chronic pain, and difficulty tapering patients require extended opiate treatment.
12
@Clancy - I hear you about doctors who prescribe opioids for minor injuries or wisdom teeth, but I've also seen the opposite - doctors who were afraid to prescribe opioids to someone who actually deserved them. Case in point: a 70 year old man with No drug history at all, who shattered his humerus (upper arm) into three shards, and was given ibuprofen for the pain. My own doctor called that abusive. There are misguided policies to stop giving painkillers to folks with chronic pain, or a serious injury, as well as the opposite - doctors who abuse prescription guidelines. The solution does not lie in being suspicious of people with arthritis and such in the last decade of life. There are mistakes made in both approaches.
13
Just yesterday I attended the funeral of a 52 year old friend, a long time addict, who thought he was buying coke (!) but instead got a deadly dose of heroin laced with Fentanyl.
It feels like the AIDS epidemic when a generation was wiped out. Now, as then, we’ll never know what those people could have become or accomplished. We’re incredibly smart and talented people. We have to find a solution before we lose any more of our families, friends and neighbors.
115
@Rmski77
Ouch!! Sorry about the loss of your friend, Rmski77. It must've been extremely painful for you to have to deal with. Take care...all the best.
1
@Rmski77
No. A generation was not wiped out. Not even close.
The AIDS epidemic, officially counted as beginning in 1981, has killed 675,000 people. In 37 years, that comes to 18,243 people a year IN THE U.S.
In contrast, the flu epidemic of 1918-1920 killed somewhere between 50 million - 100 million people worldwide, with 500,000 people dying in the US in a two year period.
Yes, HIV/AIDS is a tragic virus, whose mortality has largely been controlled by the great antiviral cocktails that science has researched and tested.
This is a situation that is worsening from so many factors -- availability, cost, and others notwithstanding, the pushers are very good at what they do.
Please do not equate HIV/AIDS with this.
3
Before there is desire to inject, there is extreme despair. Do these people have a "good reason" to be so much in despair that the only way "out" is thru blanking out. While homelessness and basic necessities are important, many addicts (as the woman says she has two children who are addicts) are losing hope for reasons that have lttle to do with resources: Recall the addict who said she finds here belonging even if it's a dysfunctional family. We need a multipronged approach and it starts with school and basic sense of what s good. No wonder USA is near the bottom in PISA!
21
I was 23 and working in a psychiatric facility in Albuerque. A patient there was a young woman who'd signed herself in to detox from Methadone. She was charming and I was completely taken in -- advocated for her to get shots of Valium for her symptoms. But after a while, I was disenchanted. She told horrific stories. Her sister was a piano teacher but she sold her sister's piano to buy drugs. She'd trained her 3 year old daughter to "look for ties for mommy." I later learned that she'd signed herself into the hospital for methadone detox because heroin was more fun. I think about her when I read stories like this. This article captures the complexities, but my heart is with the residents of the neighborhood who are trying to survive and raise children in these terrible neighborhoods.
364
Susan: your story is horrific but there is one line that does not track. The addict you spoke of indicated that heroin was”more fun” than methadone. Most addicts feel that the drug they are addicted to are more like a ball and chain that they are unable to extricate themselves from. No real addict are having fun. The fun ends after getting high has caused a major upheaval in the user’s life. How many high I had ask have you seen smiling, dancing and generally enjoying life?
3
How about enacting and enforcing vagrancy and drug laws and just trying incarcerating these young people. Enforced professional rehab with multi-disciplinary treatment teams? Prison or jail vs rehab? I know it is expensive and unpopular but really this sort of behavior ought to be illegal and come with significant consequences.
45
You mean doing the same thing we've been doing and hoping for different results? That's the definition of insanity.
11
This is so depressing!
You have to wonder if the prolonged stay in the Middle East has anything to do with it. After all, that tightened environment can forever change a person's psyche. Life is not as precious and people need more kicks to feel alive.
And the synthetics just blow everything away. Your brain may get rewired permanently. This is not just behavioral, it may really be neurochemical. Even with Suboxone, blocking the craving might not be enough.
So, without even understanding the basic science, how are you going to cure a disease, man-made it may be
19
@Bos: That prolonged and failed involvement in Middle Eastern as well as Far Eastern power struggles has diverted our attention and resources from dealling sensibly with our own problems at home -- no coubt about that!
7
The removal of the law from all of this is the first step to a solution but there are so many interests that would object.
6
@JH3 Removing the law from the sale and use of fentanyl would be devastating to our society. That's not even debatable.
18
After reading the article I have a new appreciation for how complex and difficult this problem is for cities, health professionals, and community activists. I applaud Mayor Kenney for forming a task force to tackle the problem head on. I also applaud his realism--that finding solutions will take years. But no one living in America's birthplace, Philadelphia, should live in such abject despair--not the addicts or the residents who must witness the suffering and blight that addiction brings.
141
@GK
I beg to differ about the success of Mr. Kenney's 'task force'. A better moniker might be 'design committee'.
The results seem to have been a mishmash of stale ideas brought to the table by the various participants, with no overall strategy and highly dubious results.
That's not leadership.
2
What? It sounds like exactly the right group of experts worked hard to develop evidence-based solutions to an exquisitely complex problem. If you have better ideas, by all means please share.
3
Reading version after version of this story, set in city after city, rural area after suburb, year after year after year, one could get the idea that no one, anywhere, has a clue how to effectively address the problem.
It's almost as if we didn't have, among other examples, nearly two decades of history in Portugal to point the way for us.
It couldn't be that some of the massive resistance to changing our societal approach arises from attachment to the $30 billion or so we spend on abysmally-failed *old* approaches, could it?
"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."
~Upton Sinclair
404
@Douglas, what do you mean by "It's almost as if we didn't have, among other examples, nearly two decades of history in Portugal to point the way for us."? Did Portugal overcome this type of huge opioid crisis? Are there other places that did? I've never heard of this bad a crisis nor any workable solutions.
13
@Woolly Democrat
Portugal solved many of problems that America has come to own by a strikingly successful strategy that you will never hear in the U.S because it goes against all policy and behavioural indoctrinations that have been at the forefront of America's "war on drugs "since it began in 1961.
Search the Internet and see what Portugal did and the results it got.
But then realise despite it solving most of the problems America is facing, people would be loathe to fix things by the way they would need to and have to...and why things won't get fixed .
1
I think that the most important thing is not to allow these encampments to take root and grow.
IMHO, you send a signal that multiple branches of government will do everything in their power to prevent encampments...police, streets and sanitation, health.
And homeless and drug activists have to come up with a better talking point than that letting people stew and rot in their own filth is the most "humane" thing we can do as a society.
6
Jeff Stockbridge, congratulations on being recognized for your striking and tireless portrayal of Kensington Blues.
30
@cwhy check-out his book, Kensington Blues. Its a collection of pictures, and short stories written by individuals who are/were stuck in Kensington. He donated a percentage of the proceeds to Prevention Point, the clean needle exchange.
9
I thought Trump was going to do something about the opoiod problem. Just like he was going to do something about the Chicago crime problem. Thanks Trump.
101
@Angel this has nothing to do with Trump. Listen, I cant stand him, but this has been going on down in that neighborhood since Reagan. Lets be real, it will take an army of people & agencies to even begin to curb this epidemic. You can really thank the Senators, Boarder Patrol, the pharmaceutical industry, and city council for allowing this to happen. It doesnt get this bad by chance. Read up on the FDA passing Oxycontin without doing clinical trials, resulting in "no known side-affects", although the Chinese have know for 5000 years that opiates are addictive.
19
Google opium war, half of the Chinese population were addicted to opium, forced sales by the biggest drug dealer ever existed, UK.
2
Not to worry. Trump has promised to fix this.
141
@A. Stanton: this problem is DECADES old and you know it.
How did OBAMA fix this? please be specific.
Obama had 8 years -- Trump has had 20 months.
5
My mom grew up in Port Richmond and my aunt still lives there. It's crazy knowing about "The Badlands" since you were a kid and now reading an article where you can recognize the street names and know exactly where these camps are. This story isn't new and it is still a story after decades because there is no easy fix to this endless cycle. At the same time not doing anything and just blaming it on people's "character" and "choice" is not a solution. Decriminalization works for Portugal and is the only fix we haven't tried yet. Just need to get the political will to do it. How long we will wait for that? Decades more probably. :(
169
@Brett: Portugal is a tiny nation of 10 million. And their problem was vastly smaller and did not involve the same level of lethal drugs.
It is worth studying their approach, but I do not see other countries EVEN IN EUROPE copying Portugal.
5
I feel so bad for the people who live there and cannot move. It always amazes me how people like these addicts (although their quality of life is shot) can go on and on and on, bodies ravaged, health deteriorating, skeletal, disease-ridden, and we have people with legitimate ailments and diseases, trying to fight them proper medical care who don't survive and die. drug addicts live forever, ordinary citizens die from the flu. go figure. TSOP days forever.
87
@nyc2char
How can you say "drug addicts live forever"? Their mortality rate is at bubonic plague levels. For ordinary citizens, our life span is actually increasing; cancer is yielding to new treatments; ordinary people with decent insurance, which is a high hurdle, can have acceptable, if not leading-edge health care.
As long as the Republican right wing is in the driver's seat, our society will not ascribe any value to the lives of addicts or the poor. In fact, to these plutocrats, anybody not in their income range is dispensable.
So we "ordinary citizens" have more in common with addicts than we are willing to admit. If we truly valued these people as fellow human beings --- the children, brothers and sisters of somebody; the mothers and fathers of somebody, we would treat them as the Portuguese model does. Now they and those who love them have no way out.
Treating the agonies of withdrawal, and assuring that addicts don't poison themselves should be a national priority. (I can almost hear the sarcastic scoffing at that.) People will scoff untl one of their own loved ones falls into the pitiless iron grip of addiction.
12
@nyc2char
The belief that addicts live forever is way off. Not sure where you got that line of thinking. There is no doubt that addicts tend to take a lot of people down with them but there are answers but they are big answers.
3
@nyc2char I love Philly. Always will.
4
Your pictures make this look like it is an overwhelmingly White population addicted to drugs. Is this true? If so can it be explained? Were they targeted or do they have some social or biological similarity which explains the demographics? Drugs should be decriminalized including heroin and cocaine. The law should only limit the quantity an individual can sell to less than $100,000 a year. Corporations should be banned from trading in recreational drugs. We should punish large drug syndicates and only allow mom and pop operations. The punishment for large operations should be draconian. Take the massive profit out of recreational drugs.
21
@Mike There are plenty of black and hispanic homeless heroin addicts too but for some reason in Kensington the vast majority of homeless junkies are white. Don't know why this is the case but in my experience the majority of opioid addicts (homeless or not) are white.
3
@Mike: it is easily explained.. The road to heroin addiction doesn't go through the weed dealer but (only in the US) through the doctors office.. Most other countries ban opioid prescription for people who are not on the verge of death.. It's called terminal care and should be the only acceptable time a doctor prescribes opiods! USA; please wake up, ban prescriptions to anyone who is not on their death bed.. You'd still be stuck with the current addicts but the problem will not grow anymore or at least as fast as it is now! No way that's going to happen as the drug makers pay millions to politicians to prevent just that!
2
@Mike That's nuts. First, there's nothing wrong with making a profit. Second, the larger the operation the better. Quality will be higher, the product will be purer, and because of economies of scale it will be cheaper. What exactly is a recreational drug? All these drugs are for medical use. When the state tries to control things it just makes them worse and just because you feel big companies are bad, doesn't make it so.
Listen to TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia) while you read this and try to remember, as I can, the city before it turned into an ugly cesspit of drugs and used needles. Bet you can't...
10
I hate that the entire city of Philadelphia is being portrayed as a cesspit of drugs and poverty. This is a terrible problem but it is only one neighborhood in a city of great neighborhoods. I moved here 25 years ago and wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.
20
I don’t think the author painted the city with a broad brush. She took pains to pinpoint the problem. This isn’t a story about Philadelphia; it is a story about a small area and the complexities of tackling an immense crisis. She repeatedly wrote about the administration's efforts to find solutions and to help people.
3
@Phillypete I didn't read the article that way at all, Pete. It's clearly just one are as described by the writer. Every single metropolitan area has less-than-desirable neighborhoods, and in the west, many, many communities are fully and totally rundown.
1