'Smell of rotting skin': This 'zombie drug' is making a neighborhood’s drug crisis even worse

22 February

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When Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker took office in January 2024, she made it clear that tackling the city's drug problem was a high priority — especially in Kensington, a neighborhood that is notorious for its abundance of addicts.

The New York Times' Jennifer Percy, in an article published in 2018, detailed Kensington's struggle with heroin addiction. But Kensington, like the so-called "Methadone Mile" in Boston, is also infamous for crack cocaine. And another drug that plagues Kensington is xylazine, known on the streets as "tranq."

Tranq is often referred to as the "zombie drug" because of the way it impairs the user's ability to stand up straight. And the tranq crisis is detailed in articles published by the conservative National Review, The Conversation and National Public Radio (NPR).

The Conversation interviewed Rachel Fadden, who works at a clinic in Kensington and described the skin infections that are specific to tranq use.

McFadden told The Conversation, "Before xylazine, most of the wounds we treated were skin infections like abscesses. These conditions develop when a bit of bacteria gets under the skin and a pocket of infection forms. When treated with antibiotics, these infections normally clear up quickly. At the end of 2019, participants at the wound care clinic started to come in with a different kind of wound. They were filled with black and yellow dead tissue and tunneled deep into the skin. They were not wounds from infection, but rather, from tissue death or necrosis."

NPR's Scott Simon, in 2023, reported that tranq was making Kensington's drug crisis even worse.

"The neighborhood may be the site of the largest open-air drug market on the East Coast," Simon observed. "People are passed out on sidewalks that are littered with needles, slumped in gutters and propped against brick buildings, blinking and staring blankly."

The National Review's Audrey Fahlberg interviewed Rosalind Pichardo, who operates Sunshine House —a homeless shelter in Kensington. According to Fahlberg, Pichardo burns incense at Sunshine House to counter the smell of tranq-related wounds.

Fahlberg reports, "The wounds. Because tranq is an animal-grade sedative, it doesn't process naturally through the human body. Instead, it burns through the skin and causes necrosis — rotting of the flesh. A paper cut or stubbed toe can metastasize into a gaping wound that requires serious medical intervention, even amputation…. Sometimes, the smell of rotting skin is so strong that Roz applies Vicks VapoRub on herself as a kind of shield."

Pichardo told the National Review that a woman at Sunshine House lost an arm because of a tranq-related wound.

Kensington is part of a section of Philly known as the River Wards, which also include Fishtown to the south and Port Richmond (a working-class area known for its large Polish community) to the east. Kensington borders Fishtown, a very gentrified area where property values have soared in recent years.

"In 2026," Fahlberg notes, "Philadelphia will host the World Cup, the PGA Championship, and celebrations for America’s 250th birthday. That means there are political incentives to clean the city up, and fast. Democratic Mayor Cherelle Parker insists she's on the case. She announced a crackdown on Kensington, with more police officers, more street sweeps, and more arrests."

Fahlberg adds, "On an earlier visit I made to Kensington, last October, local pastor Julio Cólon-Laboy told me it’s too early to assess whether Parker's efforts are paying off. Theft and prostitution are still rampant, and many of the neighborhood stores remain fronts for drug operations. But Julio says she's far tougher on crime than her predecessor, Mayor Jim Kenney, and some positive changes are already noticeable: less trash, more police, fewer encampments."

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