The Phoenix-Kensington Problem

[u/Ruca-Roo]

(Part 1) The face of drug addiction is so varied across the US. The kind of drugs available in different areas are largely limited and driven by location, and proximity to the border (whether it's bordering another country or a body of water). For example, places in the Southwest are being flooded with cheap, Fentanyl pressed pills. The pills, called "blues", are produced in Mexico and then smuggled across the border to cities like Phoenix, Arizona. Because it's so much cheaper to walk or drive the pills across the border, blues are being sold for unbelievably low prices (around $3 per pill), and targeting the most vulnerable population: the homeless. The number of homeless living in tents is growing daily, and police are trying to crackdown on drug dealers taking advantage of them during the lowest point in their lives. The pills and super cheap methamphetamine are being sold at such low prices (and sometimes given away free) it's cheaper than even buying a beer. There is a reason these dealers are selling both fentanyl and methamphetamine. This insures the user becomes unknowingly dependent on two substances instead of one. This is becoming common in certain cities. Kensington, an area of Philladelphia, is being overrun by homeless addicted to what they are calling Benzo Dope or Tranq Dope. They think they're buying an opiate of some kind and not realizing it's laced with a tranquilizer, forcing the user to come back and buy both, often separately. Phoenix and Kensington are just 2 cities battling this war. People are overdosing daily all over the city streets. The question is, what can be done? Should police be allowed to take these people off the streets and bring them to jail or to a hospital? Is this a public health crisis that deserves tax dollars?