This is the fourth story in a series about the open-air drug market in Kensington. Read the <\/em>first<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>second<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>third<\/em><\/a> parts.<\/em><\/p>\n PHILADELPHIA \u2013 Rotting flesh. That\u2019s a key indicator someone is addicted to xylazine, a drug sweeping the nation. And Kensington, a neighborhood in the City of Brotherly Love, served as ground zero.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s crazy to think \u2026 the good option is to have good old fashion heroin back,” Frank Rodriguez, a local advocate, told Fox News. “That s— sounds so crazy and so foreign to say or to think.”<\/p>\n Rodriguez, himself a recovering heroin addict<\/a>, said it\u2019s become difficult in Kensington to score H that hasn\u2019t been cut with fentanyl or xylazine. The latter, a veterinary tranquilizer often called tranq, tranq dope or the zombie drug<\/a>, was ravaging Kensington well before it was identified elsewhere.<\/p>\n A tranq dope cocktail \u2014 used to bolster fentanyl and sold for half the price of a traditional dose \u2014 causes users to fall into a deep stupor, leaving them susceptible to rape and robbery. When they come to, they may already be facing withdrawal and craving another fix.<\/p>\n The zombie drug also causes excruciatingly painful wounds, including necrosis, that could require amputation if they\u2019re not treated.<\/p>\n A xylazine wound covers the back of a users hand. If such wounds go untreated they can lead to amputation. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n “You literally see people, you know, with sores, with their skin falling off their body,” Rodriguez told Fox News. “You could smell rotting flesh when you get in a group of a few individuals in the summertime.”<\/p>\n On the arms and legs, the wounds might look like a portion of flesh was carved out or maybe a minutes-old chemical burn. Hands and feet may be swollen almost out of recognition.<\/p>\n Sometimes the wounds become hardened tissue. Sometimes they fester and ooze.<\/p>\n “The tranq dope literally eats your flesh,” Brooke Peder, a 38-year-old Kensington resident known as the Hood Grandma told The New York Times<\/a>. Her leg had been amputated because of a tranq-induced infection.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s self-destruction at its finest,” she said.<\/p>\n Another addict, Tracey McCann, told the Times she\u2019d seen fleas and maggots covering users\u2019 tranq wounds.<\/p>\n And since xylazine isn\u2019t an opioid, common overdose treatments aren\u2019t effective.<\/p>\n “You give them Narcan and it doesn\u2019t matter because you\u2019re treating the wrong thing,” Rodriguez said. “It\u2019s a completely different ball game now.”<\/p>\n Health experts say to try a single dose of Narcan<\/a> anyway, since it\u2019s not easy to tell what drug is causing the overdose.<\/p>\n Almost out of thin air, xylazine flooded Kensington, with the deluge starting in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic<\/a> took hold. Addicts have said they might shoot up without realizing xylazine, which can make fentanyl last longer, is mixed into their dose.<\/p>\n “Most people tell me, \u2018I wish I could find dope that didn\u2019t have xylazine,\u2019” Dr. Joseph D\u2019Orazio, an expert in addiction medicine at Temple University Hospital told the Times.<\/p>\n In 2021, over 90% of dope samples in Philadelphia contained xylazine, according to city data<\/a>. And a June study<\/a> found that it\u2019d been identified in 36 states and D.C.<\/p>\n A Kensington drug user sits on a Philadelphia sidewalk with an exposed wound from xylazine. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n But more recent findings suggest a more dire situation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Drug Enforcement Administration<\/a> announced in March that the agency has found xylazine in 23% of fentanyl powder and in 7% of fentanyl pills. It\u2019s made seizures in 48 states.<\/p>\n “Xylazine is making the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, fentanyl, even deadlier,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in a statement.<\/p>\n In Kensington, xylazine has driven a 313% increase in visits to a nearby wound care clinic over a three-year period, according to the Times.<\/p>\n Before xylazine took hold, the neighborhood was already struggling to get a handle on fentanyl addiction<\/a>. Overdose kits can be found scattered throughout Kensington.<\/p>\n “I remember when the heroin first became tainted with fentanyl,” he said. “People would let you know \u2018Yo, be careful, this has fentanyl in it.\u2019”<\/p>\n “Out of 100 different corners, there might be 10 corners that had heroin that was cut with fentanyl,” Rodriguez added. “Now you can’t find a bag of heroin without fentanyl in Philadelphia.”<\/p>\n As dangerous as xylazine is, fentanyl\u2019s own lethality shouldn\u2019t be forgotten.<\/p>\n The synthetic opioid can be up to 100 times more potent than heroin and has become a regular staple in the drug overdose epidemic<\/a>. About two-thirds of the more than 106,000 overdose deaths in 2021 were from synthetic opioids \u2014 primarily fentanyl, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.<\/p>\n “Fentanyl has had a tremendous impact on Kensington,” Rodriguez told Fox News. “It’s almost as if when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, it got kicked up about five or 10 notches.”<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Kensington-a-xylazine-wound-covers-the-back-of-a-users-hand.-If-such-wounds-go-untreated-they-can-lead-to-amputation.jpg\")
<\/a>\u2018The deadliest drug threat\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Kensington-drug-user-sits-on-a-Philadelphia-sidewalk-with-an-exposed-wound-from-xylazine.jpg\")
<\/a>\u2018A tremendous impact\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n