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America’s Worst Drug Crisis Ever Is Causing The Streets Of Many U.S. Cities To Look Like A “Zombie Apocalypse” Has Arrived
economic collapse blog ^ | 3/17/21 | Michael Snyder

Posted on 03/18/2021 8:35:03 AM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal

America has been battling illegal street drugs for decades, but we have never seen anything like this. When the COVID pandemic hit the U.S., illegal drug use dramatically surged, and that has carried over into 2021. As I discussed a few days ago, the amount of meth that CBP agents have seized is up 9 percent so far in fiscal year 2021 and the amount of cocaine that CBP agents have seized is up 64 percent so far in fiscal year 2021. But the largest increase has been in fentanyl traffic. At this point, CBP agents have seized “more than 4,900 lbs of fentanyl during the first five months of FY21, already surpassing the total for all of FY20”.

The big drug cartels absolutely love fentanyl for a couple of reasons.

First of all, it is extremely inexpensive to make, and it is very easy to move it long distances.

Secondly, it is exceedingly addictive, and so customers constantly come back for more.

But the only problem is that many of those customers don’t last too long. Tens of thousands of Americans are dropping dead from fentanyl overdoses, and this has become a major national crisis.

Once again tonight, vast hordes of addicts will congregate in urban areas where they know they will be able to score some fentanyl. One of those areas is Kensington Avenue in northeast Philadelphia…

The video looks like a scene from an apocalyptic movie – dozens of disheveled people shivering in the middle of a winter night as they camp out around a trash bin on fire among a street strewn with litter.

But the footage isn’t a Hollywood production but a candid snapshot of Kensington Avenue in northeast Philadelphia – an area that has been likened to the infamous Skid Row section of Los Angeles.

The neighborhood has previously been dubbed the ‘East Coast’s largest open-air drug market’ by DEA officials, according to the New York Times.

You can see footage of Kensington Avenue at night right here. If you didn’t know better, you would probably be tempted to think that it was pulled right out of a post-apocalyptic horror film.

On Kensington Avenue, addicts can purchase a bag of fentanyl-laced heroin for as little as five dollars…

The Kensington section of Philadelphia, where anyone can buy a lethal dose of fentanyl-laced heroin for $5 a bag, has been known locally as the ‘ground zero’ of America’s opioid epidemic, Philadelphia Magazine reported.

It is not uncommon for locals who pass by the area to notice men lying motionless on the sidewalk.

Syringes and needles are also frequently seen out and used in plain sight.

Sometimes the men that are lying motionless on the sidewalk never get up, and that is because they have dropped dead from an overdose.

Of course scenes like this play out on a nightly basis all over America. At this point, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl have become the leading cause of overdose deaths in the United States…

In 2016, synthetic opioids, primarily illegal fentanyl, passed prescription opioids as the most common drugs involved in overdose deaths in the United States, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

It is incredibly easy to overdose on fentanyl. In fact, an amount of fentanyl equivalent to “two grains of salt” is apparently enough to put you in the grave…

Some families are facing a fentanyl crisis and law enforcement is sounding the alarm. The tasteless, odorless drug is driving up the number of fatal overdoses.

People who are battling a substance use disorder are being fooled by fentanyl. Lisa Smittcamp, the District Attorney in Fresno County, California, says the amount it takes to overdose is about the size of two grains of salt.

For a number of years, this was primarily a problem in the eastern half of the nation, but that has all changed.

Fentanyl use is now spreading like wildfire in the western half of the country, and that spike is pushing the overall death toll dramatically higher. The following comes from NPR…

The spike in fentanyl deaths in the West contributed to a record number of fatal overdoses last year, with roughly 72,000 Americans dead.

“It’s just getting worse, and it’s killing too many people,” said Matthew Donahue, deputy chief of operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Sadly, the final number for 2021 is expected to be even higher.

These are deaths that do not need to happen, but Americans don’t seem to be getting the message that fentanyl use is extremely dangerous.

In fact, since the beginning of the pandemic the number of Americans testing positive for fentanyl use has absolutely skyrocketed…

Use of methamphetamine and fentanyl shot up after the pandemic hit the U.S. in March 2020, with a particularly sharp spike for the latter, according to a new report by drug testing company Millennium Health.

The adjusted positivity rate of urine drug screens was up 78% for fentanyl and 29% for methamphetamine during the first 9 months of the pandemic compared with the same period in 2019, according to the report. While cocaine and heroin saw small increases initially, both fell below pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2020.

This is yet another example of how the fabric of our society is unraveling all around us, and it is only going to get worse.

For years, much of the fentanyl being used in the U.S. was coming in from China, but then international pressure forced the Chinese to ban the sale of fentanyl.

Unfortunately, since that time vendors in China have found ways around that ban…

Under international pressure, China’s government banned the production and sale of fentanyl and many of its variants in May 2019, resulting in a significant reduction in the country’s illicit fentanyl trade.

But more than a year later, Chinese vendors have tapped into online networks to brazenly market fentanyl analogs and the precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl, and ship them directly to customers in the U.S. and Europe as well as to Mexican cartels, according to an NPR investigation and research from the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, or C4ADS, a nonprofit data analysis group.

This is one of the reasons why we need strong security on our southern border.

Right now the Mexican cartels are flooding our streets with fentanyl, and the new administration does not seem too concerned about doing anything to stop this from happening.


TOPICS: Conspiracy; Government; Health/Medicine; Society
KEYWORDS: addiction; drugs; usa; wod; zombies
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1 posted on 03/18/2021 8:35:03 AM PDT by Roman_War_Criminal
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All lead by the undead Pallor Man


2 posted on 03/18/2021 8:38:16 AM PDT by dsrtsage (Complexity is merely simplicity lacking imagination)
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To: Roman_War_Criminal

The government doesn’t care because they’re culling off the population and importing a newer, more compliant one.


3 posted on 03/18/2021 8:39:01 AM PDT by Shadow44
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To: Roman_War_Criminal

Don’t blame the Chinese Government. Don’t blame the Mexican government. Blame the United States government.


4 posted on 03/18/2021 8:39:25 AM PDT by RC one (When a bunch of commies start telling you that you don't need an AR15, you really need an AR15)
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To: Shadow44

One man rises while another man falls.


5 posted on 03/18/2021 8:41:12 AM PDT by RC one (When a bunch of commies start telling you that you don't need an AR15, you really need an AR15)
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To: Roman_War_Criminal

Sure it’s not the vaccine doing that?


6 posted on 03/18/2021 8:43:16 AM PDT by fruser1
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To: Roman_War_Criminal

“It is incredibly easy to overdose on fentanyl.”

Not really, one has to first make the decision that they are going to inject or otherwise consume a deadly illegal drug.


7 posted on 03/18/2021 8:44:24 AM PDT by Meatspace
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To: Roman_War_Criminal

I don’t see any way out of this short of all the addicts dying off. I don’t see them checking into Betty Ford and getting the job and the house with the white picket fence.


8 posted on 03/18/2021 8:46:55 AM PDT by 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten
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Comment #9 Removed by Moderator

To: Roman_War_Criminal

Caesar’s method of control - Bread & Circuses

Radical’s method of control - Sex & Drugs & Rock n Roll

DemonicRats method of control - Welfare, Drugs, & Hollywood


10 posted on 03/18/2021 8:49:02 AM PDT by CoastWatcher
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To: Roman_War_Criminal
On Saturdays I enjoy watching the Nat Geo series on drug smuggling and trafficking.......

I'm convinced that the only way it can be stopped is by waging an all out military war against the cartels with immediate executions of all their members from the top down.......

You can't just throw them in prison because they continue their business while behind bars.....

11 posted on 03/18/2021 8:53:13 AM PDT by Hot Tabasco
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To: Roman_War_Criminal
You don't need to travel far to see a "zombie apocalypse".

You can walk down the street in larger cities of most states and see heavily-masked people staring vacantly ahead, fearful of coming within two yards of anyone else (whether they're masked or not) angry, distrustful and ready for confrontation with everyone and everything.

I expect these "urban zombies" won't recover until their favorite politician tells them that it's OK -- that it's "safe" -- for them to stop hiding in fear and to show their face again.

12 posted on 03/18/2021 8:53:16 AM PDT by glennaro ("Until it's safe" means "never" (Dennis Prager))
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To: Roman_War_Criminal

I believe that, thanks to the lockdowns and mask nonsense, we are actually living in a post apocalyptic world. It just hasn’t fallen all the way yet. That will happen this summer.


13 posted on 03/18/2021 8:54:57 AM PDT by cuban leaf (We killed our economy and damaged our culture. In 2021 we will pine for the salad days of 2020.)
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To: Roman_War_Criminal

If we just made fentanyl and heroin legal, no one would use it, right?


14 posted on 03/18/2021 8:57:14 AM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: Roman_War_Criminal

They know where all of this activity is occurring and yet they do nothing.

I’m sure Biden will get right on it.


15 posted on 03/18/2021 9:03:03 AM PDT by unixfox (Abolish Slavery, Repeal the 16th Amendment)
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To: Roman_War_Criminal

Tear down those walls!! /sarc


16 posted on 03/18/2021 9:08:09 AM PDT by bluejean (Living one day at a time in the national psych ward.)
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To: Roman_War_Criminal
an amount of fentanyl equivalent to “two grains of salt” is apparently enough to put you in the grave…

Criminalization increases the incentive to maximize the high per unit volume. I don't know what the answer to fentanyl is, but I'm pretty sure it's not more of what got us here.

17 posted on 03/18/2021 9:17:06 AM PDT by NobleFree ("law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual")
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To: ConservativeMind

Remember, head shots only kill the zombie.


18 posted on 03/18/2021 9:29:25 AM PDT by spincaster (hat )
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To: Roman_War_Criminal

Just ask George Floyd. He had 2x lethal limit at time of arrest. The autopsy showed he died of OD.


19 posted on 03/18/2021 9:30:11 AM PDT by DownInFlames (Gam)
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To: Hot Tabasco

“... the only way it can be stopped is by waging an all out military war against the cartels”

I heard that the KKK, in addition to mistreating blacks, would take care of various antisocial behavior such as wife beating and drug peddling, in their vigilante manner.

Citizens might need to help with the drug problem in a vigilante manner. Forget the Federal government. Perhaps State and Local governments can be more help.


20 posted on 03/18/2021 9:37:28 AM PDT by cymbeline
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