In this neighbourhood, people openly inject the ‘zombie drug’ Tranq on every street corner
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.
Christophe injected Tranq while speaking to Sky News
Christophe slumped to the floor after his hit
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.
Read more:
How drug leaves million-dollar streets strewn with bodies
‘Tranq’ designated ‘threat to the nation’
What is fentanyl?
Christophe eventually passed out
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.
Ronnie checks Christophe after he injects Tranq
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.
Dr Rahul Gupta is the White House’s drug policy lead
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.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Will Trump address parliament on UK state visit?
This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
Read more from Sky News:
Kate’s ’emotional’ words for tearful tennis star
Music festival cancelled as headliner pulls out
Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Who is being targeted in Trump’s immigration raids?
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
Read more:
Trump announces 30% tariff on imports from EU
President threatens to revoke US comedian’s citizenship
Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Will Trump address parliament on UK state visit?
This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
Read more from Sky News:
Kate’s ’emotional’ words for tearful tennis star
Music festival cancelled as headliner pulls out
Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports1 year agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Sports2 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike