Dozens of drug users were passed out along the sidewalks of Kensington Avenue on a gloomy August afternoon. Others stumbled through incoming traffic in the open-air drug market that’s ravaged one neighborhood in the City of Brotherly Love.

Kensington has gained international infamy for its excessive public drug consumption. The area has become a hotspot for xylazine — a veterinary tranquilizer known as the zombie drug or tranq — which was found in over 90% of drug samples tested in Philadelphia in 2021, according to city data.

In Kensington’s open-air drug market, users were passed out on the pavement, covered in scabbing or oozing flesh wounds from xylazine with fresh blood running down their arms from injecting themselves with needles. Some users were spotted wandering around in a stupor through a busy road.

[Holy smokes, the pictures are ghastly. ~ Beege]