In this neighbourhood, people openly inject the ‘zombie drug’ Tranq on every street corner

Published

2 years ago

July 12, 2023

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After just 15 minutes on the streets of Philadelphia’s Kensington neighbourhood, an encounter that was everything.

It was illustrative of a crisis out of control, it was reflective of a profound personal struggle, it was instructive of the power of addiction, and it was deeply, deeply sad.

“I really didn’t have anybody taking me seriously,” Christophe said to me as he explained why he was where he was.

“I was this young guy, a semi-pro athlete.”

He explained how it had all begun with an injury.

Painkillers, prescribed at first, then self-medicated. Then illicit opioids. Now this new drug, Tranq.

He was fluent, eloquent, thoughtful, and as he told me his truncated life story, he was injecting himself in the left arm.

It didn’t take long. Seconds. He trailed off. A mumble.

Then nothing. His body stooped.

The hit had hit. He was almost out. He stumbled over to the curb and slumped down. Less than a minute later, he was unconscious.

I was last here in Philadelphia in February.

We’d gone then to investigate a new street drug which was leaving the most horrific wounds on those who use it. What we found then was shocking, devastating and truly depressing.

I’ve come back now because there’s news that the story of the so-called “zombie drug” has taken a turn.

America’s top drug prevention officials have been analysing nationwide data to see if this new drug, which had first emerged in these Philadelphia streets, is actually more widespread than they had thought.

What they have discovered is alarming.

New analysis of data stretching back to 2019 now shows a jump in Xylazine-related deaths of 276% nationwide. Deaths are more than doubling every year across America.

The drug, a cattle tranquiliser that is mixed by dealers into the existing opioid street drug supply, has now been detected in 48 of the 50 US states. Less than a year ago, they thought it had only been found in Philadelphia.

Regular unadulterated opioids are already killing more than 100,000 Americans every year. So news that xylazine is now so widespread is devastating for users, for volunteers and for the authorities who by our judgment have no control of this crisis.

In Philadelphia, I wanted to see how the users and volunteers I’d met back in February were doing and what they made of a major new “action plan” that President Biden has asked his officials to initiate.

Before Christophe had succumbed to his latest hit, he had seemed encouraged by the news from the White House.

Access to addiction treatment was key, he’d said.

Our guide through these dangerous streets was Ronnie Kaiser, who runs the charity Angels in Motion. She’d shown us around back in February and was keen to do so again.

I watched as she checked on Christophe.

“He has a pulse. He’s not overdosing at the moment,” she said.

The hopelessness here is breathtaking. There are people openly injecting on every street corner; far more than back in February, for sure.

Their addiction is more powerful than the recognition to treat the wounds which appear all over their bodies. Access to treatment – both physical and mental – is so hard. And there is so little in the way of a safety net in America.

“It’s gotten worse,” Ronnie said as we drove past one group of people, all unconscious.

Users must navigate America’s complex and expensive health system if they are to stand a real chance of recovery.

The government’s national plan involves access to prevention, harm reduction treatment and recovery support, as well as bold actions to disrupt the supply from China via Mexico.

“I’m glad they’re finally implementing something. I just hope that the implementation is fast enough and it’s the correct one. Most people here have either mental health or trauma that’s been in their life,” Ronnie told me.

She pointed to the perennial American problem of medical insurance and the “for profit” medical facilities.

“We need federal rehabs, federal recovery houses, the ability for longer rehab stays and definitely all insurances to be accepted at all rehabs,” she said.

Officials in the Biden administration do seem to be recognising the scale of the problem, but now with such profound challenges facing them.

Joe Biden’s director of national drug control policy, Dr Rahul Gupta, agreed to talk to us.

“On the streets here it looks like failure,” I said to him. “It looks like you have not remotely got a grip of the crisis here in Philadelphia and across the country.”

He conceded: “I think what you’re seeing and what I have seen on the streets of Philadelphia, specifically on Kensington Avenue, is an example of what does happen when we are not implementing those policies.”

“What I’ve seen is so much suffering. A lot of the people do not have homes. A lot of the people need help in an urgent way,” Dr Gupta said.

But he insisted the changes are having an impact: “The policy change that has occurred with prioritising harm reduction, prioritising treatment, meeting people where they are is working.”

Christophe took a few minutes to come around. The hits are intense, but they are short and, of course, highly addictive.

“Sorry,” he said. He wanted to finish his story.

US

US Justice Department releases Ghislaine Maxwell interview transcript

Published

12 hours ago

August 22, 2025

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US Justice Department releases Ghislaine Maxwell interview transcript

The US Justice Department has released a transcript of an interview with Ghislaine Maxwell – the jailed ex-girlfriend of paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Maxwell said in the interview with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche last month that she never saw US President Donald Trump in an “inappropriate setting”.

According to the transcript, Maxwell said: “I never witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting in any way. The president was never inappropriate with anybody.”

Maxwell also recalled knowing about Mr Trump and possibly meeting him for the first time in 1990, when her newspaper magnate father, Robert Maxwell, was the owner of the New York Daily News.

“I may have met Donald Trump at that time, because my father was friendly with him and liked him very much,” Maxwell said, according to the transcript.

Maxwell said her father was fond of Mr Trump’s then-wife, Ivana, “because she was also from Czechoslovakia, where my dad was from.”

She was sentenced in the US in June 2022 to 20 years in prison following her conviction on five counts of sex trafficking for luring young girls to massage rooms for Epstein to abuse. She has asked the US Supreme Court to overturn her conviction.

Epstein, 66, was found dead in his cell at a Manhattan federal jail in August 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.

His case has generated endless attention and conspiracy theories due to his and Maxwell’s links to famous people like royals, presidents and billionaires, including Mr Trump. No one other than Epstein and Maxwell has been charged with crimes.

Mr Trump knew Epstein socially in the 1990s and early 2000s. During Maxwell’s trial in 2021, Epstein’s longtime pilot, Lawrence Visoski, said Mr Trump flew on Epstein’s private plane several times. Mr Trump has denied flying on the plane.

Maxwell said in her interview with the Justice Department that she never saw Mr Trump receive a massage.

She told Mr Blanche that Mr Trump “was always very cordial and very kind to me”, adding: “And I just want to say that I admire his extraordinary achievement in becoming the president now.”

The release of the transcript comes after Mr Trump has faced criticism from Republican supporters and Democrats over his Justice Department’s decision not to release further details relating to Epstein, after the now US president promised to do so during the election.

The Justice Department previously said a review of the Epstein case had found “no incriminating ‘client list'” and “no credible evidence” the jailed financier had blackmailed famous men.

In the transcript of the department’s interview with Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend said that she is not aware of any Epstein ‘client list’.

After her interview in July, Maxwell was moved to a minimum-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas, by the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) after she was held at a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Florida, that housed men and women.

The Texas camp houses solely female prisoners, the majority of whom are serving time for nonviolent offences and white-collar crimes.

Neither Maxwell’s lawyer nor the BOP gave a reason for the move.

Maxwell’s legal team have maintained that she was wrongly prosecuted and denied a fair trial, and have floated the idea of a pardon from Mr Trump.

The president said earlier this month that “nobody” had asked him about pardoning Maxwell, but insisted that he has “the right to do it”.

Mr Trump said: “I’m allowed to do it, but nobody’s asked me to do it. I know nothing about it. I don’t know anything about the case, but I know I have the right to do it. I have the right to give pardons, I’ve given pardons to people before, but nobody’s even asked me to do it.”

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US

Multiple people killed after tour bus returning to New York City from Niagara Falls crashes

Published

12 hours ago

August 22, 2025

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Multiple people killed after tour bus returning to New York City from Niagara Falls crashes

A tour bus returning to New York City from Niagara Falls has crashed on a major road, killing and injuring multiple people.

The bus, with 52 passengers on board, crashed and rolled on Interstate 90 near Pembroke, about 30 miles (48km) east of Buffalo, in New York State at around 12.30pm (5.30pm UK time).

“At this time we have multiple fatalities, multiple entrapments and multiple injuries,” said Trooper James O’Callaghan, a spokesperson for the New York State Police. He added that authorities believe one child was among those killed.

Several people inside were thrown from the bus as the windows shattered, while some passengers became trapped in the wreckage.

Erie County Medical Centre in Buffalo said it had received 24 patients.

At a news conference, Dr Jennifer Pugh, chief of emergency medicine, said two people had been taken to the operating theatre, one of whom had suffered internal injuries.

Dr Jeffrey Brewer, chief of surgery, said he expected that two patients who had suffered the most serious injuries would recover.

He added that people had been admitted with blunt trauma, head injuries and extremity (arm and leg) fractures.

Mr O’Callahan said most people on the bus were Indian, Chinese, and Filipino, and translators were being brought to the scene. The driver survived and is cooperating with the police.

He added, “It’s a full-size tour bus. Heavy amount of damage. Most people, I’m assuming, on the bus did not have a seat belt on, that is the reason why we have so many ejected people on this bus.”

The Mercy Flight air medical transport service said its three helicopters were transporting people from the crash site to area hospitals.

“It’s a very active scene,” said Mercy Flight president Margaret Ferrentino. “At this time we’re praying for the victims.”

Mr O’Callaghan said the driver, who survived the accident, lost control while the bus was at full speed, causing it to flip when he tried to correct course.

The highway has been closed in both directions, causing massive traffic delays at the onset of one of the last weekends of the summer vacation season.

The falls, which are on the US-Canada border, are a major tourist attraction.

More than nine million visitors explore Niagara Falls State Park annually, according to the official website for the park.

US

FBI raids home of Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton

Published

18 hours ago

August 22, 2025

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FBI raids home of Trump's former national security adviser John Bolton

The FBI has raided the home of John Bolton, the former national security adviser to Donald Trump who has since become a staunch critic of the US president.

The search of Mr Bolton’s house in Bethesda, Maryland on Friday was part of a “national security investigation in search of classified records”, reported NBC News, Sky’s US partner network, citing a source.

Mr Bolton has not been detained or apprehended. He served as President Trump’s top security adviser for 17 months during his first term in office, but was forced out of the role in 2019.

President Trump on Friday told reporters in Washington that he’d had no advance knowledge of the raid, adding: “I’m not a fan of John Bolton.”

The US Justice Department is yet to comment but FBI director Kash Patel posted on X on Friday morning, writing: “NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on mission.”

An FBI official said in a statement the agency was “conducting court authorized activity in the area”, indicating grounds had been approved for a search warrant.

Mr Trump’s former adviser is yet to respond to enquires for comment. He was not at his home during the early morning raid, CNN reported. He was seen in his Washington DC office on Friday in talks with FBI officials, according to the Associated Press.

US federal authorities are yet to release any detail as to why the search has been conducted and what allegations may be levelled against Mr Bolton.

Unnamed sources told the New York Times that an investigation has been launched into whether Mr Bolton illegally shared or possessed classified information. NBC reported a source saying the probe was looking into potential instances of the documents being leaked to journalists.

During his time as adviser, Mr Bolton had clashed regularly with the president on policy direction over Iran and North Korea. He was viewed as hawkish adviser, and President Trump has previously criticised him as “warmongering”, saying he pushed him to take military action on Iran.

Since leaving the post, Mr Bolton has called the Republican president unfit to serve, and most recently criticised Trump’s actions in Ukraine and negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In 2020, Mr Bolton also published a memoir of his time in the White House, in which he described multiple instances of what he described as Mr Trump’s misconduct and incompetence in handling foreign policy.

He also alleged that the president often prioritised his own personal interests over national security. Prior to publication, Trump’s government had tried to block the release but failed in its legal bid.

Since his return to office, Trump has on multiple occasions sought to use his presidential powers against perceived political enemies. On his first day back in the White House, Trump revoked the security clearances of more than four dozen intelligence officials, including Mr Bolton.

He also cancelled security detail for Mr Bolton and two other former Trump officials earlier this year. The officials had been receiving the federal protection because of threats to their safety from Iran.

Prior to working in Trump’s first-term team, Bolton had previously served in George W. Bush’s administration as the US ambassador to the United Nations.