The city of Philadelphia has been struggling for several years with a new substance with devastating effects: xylazine. Nicknamed the “zombie drug,” it plunges people who consume it into a prolonged state of unconsciousness, in addition to creating strong dependence and irreversible physical damage. The duty went there to document the social impact of this drug, which is starting to make its way into the country. Fourth of five texts.
The new mayor of Philadelphia wants to “clean up” the open-air drug market in Kensington. It toughens police repression and puts obstacles in the way of organizations that offer harm reduction services, including the popular needle exchange program. A situation which greatly worries those who work in the field, but which relieves some residents of the sector.
“They’re going to die,” says Shannon Ashe, co-founder of The Everywhere Project, which distributes food, clothing, wound bandages, safe drinking materials and naloxone to more than 1,000 people a week. . “We are going to see an increase in the number of deaths, an increase in cases of hepatitis and HIV. »
Like several other actors present on the ground, she criticizes the “radical change” of the new municipal administration, which relies on police force rather than prevention to eradicate drug problems in this devastated neighborhood. “The number of arrests has increased dramatically. People on the streets are afraid; they are constantly forced to move around, which is not good, because the more people are spread out, the less able they are to help themselves in the event of an overdose. »
One of the sites that the organization has occupied for four years is located in a parking lot owned by the City. “They tell us that we may no longer be able to occupy this site,” laments M.me Ash. “But we will fight. We work with several other organizations, we want to be part of the discussion. »
Terry Luma, who serves hot dogs and offers shower service in a converted recreational vehicle every Wednesday morning in the area, is also concerned about the fate of the most deprived. Rumors that religious ministries like his, If Not for Grace, will no longer be able to offer services on the streets worry him greatly. “The new administration says they want to help the sector, so they arrest people and want to stop us from providing services to them on the street. How will this help? I do not know. Maybe they think that if we stop feeding them, they will go elsewhere. »
The argument that harm reduction organizations are contributing to the problem by attracting consumers irritates Shannon Ashe to no end. “We are there because they need us, they don’t need us because we are there! »
Rosalind Pichardo, who works at “Maison Soleil”, also refuses to give up. “I’ve always worked here in Kensington, lived in Kensington. And I find it important to continue the work, even if some want to stop us. »
Reduce harm?
The new mayor, Cherelle Parker, was elected last November on the promise of “cleaning up” Kensington. The first hundred days of his mandate were largely devoted to this. She launched the “Kensington Caucus” and a series of legislative measures to crack down on the neighborhood’s drug dealers and users. “On the first day of my administration, I issued a public safety emergency declaration and made it clear that we would not tolerate these kinds of crimes, which harm the quality of life,” the mayor said in a press release in January.
She promises more housing and places for addiction treatment. At the same time, she also announced that she would no longer fund the only municipal needle exchange program, managed by the organization Prevention Point, which offers harm reduction services to more than 36,000 people per year.
A decision that saddens James Latronica, doctor and president of the Addiction Treatment Society of Pennsylvania. “Needle exchange programs are very effective. It’s one of the few public health measures that not only pays for itself, but also saves tons of money. » Not only should we not slash harm reduction measures, but we should develop more, believes the man who, like several others in Philadelphia, wants the opening of a supervised injection center — a measure considered too controversial by legislators, who blocked the initiative.
He goes even further, pleading for the legalization of drugs, a measure which would, according to him, ensure better quality of substances. “If you say you don’t want people to inject [de la drogue] in the street, give them a safe place to do it! If you don’t want people ending up in the hospital and public funds paying for hepatitis and HIV medications, give them clean needles! If you don’t want people to get poisoned [avec les drogues de rue], give them a non-poisoned supply! Sometimes the answers are so obvious. I hope that one day we will watch [la situation actuelle] in retrospect and ask yourself: “But what could we possibly have been thinking?” »
Monika VanSant, an addiction treatment doctor who treats wounds in Philadelphia, agrees. “You have to keep people alive until they are ready to go to therapy,” she says.
The mayor’s team did not respond to interview requests from Duty.
“Get out of here”
In the street, Gary Kidd, 46, finds that the mayor’s new approach is “a little harsh”. He would use more portable toilets and fewer police officers who force him to move constantly. “You never manage to find a place to sit down and relax, you always have to move, they push us further down the street. » That doesn’t stop the man standing next to him, clearly visible in a small street, from giving a customer an injection in the neck for a few dollars without anyone coming to disturb him.
A little further on, the police dislodge a small group installed on a street corner. A man sitting against a wall redoes the bandages on his leg as quickly as possible before limping away; another holds a syringe in his mouth, visibly in a hurry to give himself an injection a little further away. “Thank you for your cooperation,” says the policeman in the metallic voice of his loudspeaker.
The police are not the only ones to remove people who live or inject themselves in the street. “Go further, we’re going to open, it’s not good for the business », says Michael to a group of visibly intoxicated people as he opens the gate of the scrap dealer where he works. The tone rises when someone replies that the sidewalks belong to everyone. “Get out of here,” replied the employee, who later apologized to the journalist for having “sworn in front of a woman.”
Business owner Michael Mayberry grew up in the neighborhood. As a child, he went to feed the pigeons with his grandmother in McPherson Park, now nicknamed “Needle Park”. He saw the neighborhood deteriorate, and moved because he couldn’t imagine raising his children there. “The neighborhood was abandoned for years, they didn’t really care. They’re more interested in it now because there’s money involved, because of the gentrification of certain areas. But before, they didn’t care. They let the neighborhood become shit,” he laments.
This is why he approves “100%” of Mayor Parker’s measures. He knows that people who use drugs experience great suffering, which they try to drown in drugs. He knows it’s always more complicated than it seems. But he believes it is time to restore order in the neighborhood.
“It would be great to bring my kids here, so they could have the same experience I had.” I don’t see this possibility in the near future, but with the new measures that are being put in place, it becomes a possibility. »
This report was financed thanks to the Transat-International Journalism Fund.The duty.