Even the pandemic doesn’t slow down Philadelphia’s drug markets

Philadelphia Inquirer:

In Philadelphia’s Kensington district, home to one of the largest open-air drug markets in the United States, crowds of sellers and buyers flock to corners as if there never were a pandemic.

“The blocks [where drug dealing takes place] never closed,” said Christine Russo, 38, who’s been using heroin for seven years. She waited Friday near Kensington and Allegheny Avenues, at the heart of the city’s opioid market, while a friend prepared to inject a dose of heroin. “Business reigns. The sun shines.”

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In underground economies like the drug market, disruptions in the global supply chain can wreak havoc for people in addiction, said Leo Beletsky, the director of the Health in Justice Action Lab at Northeastern University. A shortage in heroin, for example, can prompt dealers to turn to cheaper — but deadlier — synthetic alternatives like fentanyl.

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Business closures and the economic downturn related to the pandemic make life harder in Kensington, like everywhere else — though many here were living hand to mouth long before March. Some treatment programs refused to take new clients or otherwise cut back on services as money grew tighter, staffers feared contagion, and some contracted the virus. The isolation, fear, and loneliness so many have experienced with the pandemic can be especially acute for people with substance use disorders, especially those with underlying mental health problems. People in recovery may relapse.

All of those pressures, plus economic shock and deprivation, may push more people — including those who have not experienced addiction before — to use drugs problematically, Beletsky said.

“All those issues are very much on display right now.”