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Addiction Activists Say They’re ‘Reducing Harm’ in Philly. Locals Say They’re Causing It.
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Addiction Activists Say They’re ‘Reducing Harm’ in Philly. Locals Say They’re Causing It.
Kensington Avenue in Philadelphia, seen here on March 21, 2024, is notorious for the open-air use of hard drugs including fentanyl and xylazine, known on the street as tranq. (All photos by Ashley Gilbertson for The Free Press)
Addicts have turned a minority neighborhood into an open-air drug market. Residents blame the mostly white advocates for ‘destroying’ their community.
By Olivia Reingold
04.08.24 — U.S. Politics
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Addiction Activists Say They’re ‘Reducing Harm’ in Philly. Locals Say They’re Causing It.
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For three years, Sonja Bingham, a 55-year-old mother of three, started every day the same way: with a broom. At dawn, she would come out to sweep away the damage from the previous night—the syringes, the fentanyl baggies, the cigarette butts, and the half-eaten sandwiches. And sometimes as she swept, she couldn’t help but think that the city of Philadel…

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Olivia Reingold
Olivia Reingold cocreated and executive produced Matthew Yglesias’s podcast, Bad Takes. She got her start in public radio, regularly appearing on NPR for her reporting on indigenous communities in Montana. She previously produced podcasts at Politico, where she shaped conversations with world leaders like Jens Stoltenberg.
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