America’s opioid epidemic began in 1996 when OxyContin entered the market under the manufacture of Purdue Pharma. As many now know, the medication marketed to treat everyday pain as mild as headaches was in actuality just brand-name heroin, and despite having falsified the claims that it was less addictive, the drug was granted full FDA approval. Following an aggressive marketing campaign by Purdue that included all-expenses holidays and other extravagant prizes for doctors who wrote the most prescriptions, America suddenly found itself with millions of everyday citizens—many of whom had never touched an illicit drug in their life—addicted to opioids and suffering withdrawal symptoms once their tolerance inevitably rose. Purdue’s answer to those showing signs of withdrawal? Simply up the dosage.

After a massive coverup scheme that currently has the company embroiled in a $6 billion settlement lawsuit, the FDA finally gave OxyContin a ‘black box warning’ in 2001. It was a double edged sword that on one hand made the drug more difficult to access, but on the other it left people who were already heavily addicted no choice but to either buy OxyContin on the black market or turn to cheaper illegal drugs like heroin and Fentanyl.

Today, Fentanyl overdose is the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-45 and with one person dying every eight and a half minutes, the death toll has surpassed that of suicide and Covid19. These numbers surged in 2021 as the pandemic and ensuing lockdowns caused many to relapse or increase their usage. In an effort to stabilise these figures, government funds were granted to non-profit organisations like Savage Sisters to address the issue at street level. Sadly however, much of this funding has now been pulled leaving volunteers struggling to keep up.

This is where Kensington, Philadelphia bears relevance. Home to the nation’s largest open-air drug market and notorious for having good quality product at low prices, Kensington is self-proclaimed by locals as “an area you’d only visit to pick up or sell drugs”. The price and quality of drugs is so appealing in fact that addicts partake in ‘drug tourism’, travelling from all over the country to use.