The Drug Turning Philadelphia into a Zombieland

This piece was originally published in Dispatch.

Folks come here for the drugs. Sons, daughters, mothers, and fathers, all drawn by the promise of the strongest and cheapest highs in America. Somehow, they—the drugs and the people—always end up on Kensington Avenue in Philadelphia, the country’s most notorious open-air drug market.

For years the street ran on heroin; then gangs started putting fentanyl, or “fetty,” in the dope. Then came the animal tranquilizer xylazine, known locally simply as “tranq.” Now, there is something new: medetomidine.