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.
Medetomidine delivers a shorter, more powerful high than the varieties of dope that preceded it, and the crash is faster and more brutal. By some estimates, it is 200 times stronger than xylazine. “There’s no stages to the high,” says Tony, who is in his early 30s and has a blue diamond tattoo next to his eye. “You go straight to sleep.”
To make up a hit, or “stamp”, the dealers mix the medetomidine with fentanyl, the ultra-potent synthetic opioid which continues to be the leading cause of overdose deaths in the US. The drugs are then packaged in small paper wraps, each stamped with a crew’s brand: “Hot Sauce”, “Pringles”, “Black Jack”, “Sunshine”. They cost $2 or $5, depending on the size.
“If I do a certain stamp, I have to do that stamp,” says Christine, a 41-year-old Philadelphian. She’s bundled in layers of coats, a purple hat casting a shadow over her hazel eyes. “I try to do other stamps, it won’t get me well.”
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