A Philadelphia city initiative is door-to-door canvassing to provide residents with drug overdose prevention resources amid a surge in overdose deaths.
WARNING: This story contains graphic images. Philadelphia outreach workers are knocking on thousands of doors citywide to deliver free overdose reversal drugs and fentanyl testing strips as a new report showed fatal overdoses reached a record-high. The Department of Public Health is partnering with Philly Counts for the door-to-door canvassing initiative providing residents with overdose prevention and treatment resources. The effort, which began this month, follows a city report published Oct.
The city program wants to reach all community members, but will focus on areas with the highest rate of drug overdose increases, including Kensington. Part of that neighborhood — internationally infamous for its excessive public drug consumption — is included in the zip code that had the most overdose fatalities across Philadelphia with 193 deaths, a 14% increase from the previous year, according to city data.
Heroin first plagued Philadelphia's drug-ridden communities, then fentanyl. Now, xylazine, an addictive veterinary tranquilizer, is infiltrating the drug supply and giving its users flesh-eating wounds. The substance — known as the zombie drug or tranq — was detected in about one-third of all overdose deaths, according to the 2022 city report. Most of the city's overdose deaths – 83% – involved opioids, and the majority of those fatalities included fentanyl, the data showed.
Rates of overdose have been rising steadily in Black and Hispanic communities in Philadelphia for the past few years,' Overdose Response Unit Director Noelle Foizen told Fox News in a statement. 'Due to several historical factors, many people in those communities may not be willing to raise their hand as a person who uses drugs.' Health Commissioner Dr. Cheryl Bettigole said in a press release that the drug overdose data showed the crisis wasn't contained to Kensington.
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