The neighborhood’s afflictions date to the early 1970s, when industry left and the drug trade took hold. With each new wave of drugs, the situation grows grimmer. Now, with the arrival of xylazine, a veterinary tranquilizer, new complications are burdening an already overtaxed system.
Opioid overdoses related to illegally manufactured fentanyl (the most powerful of the opioids) represented the greatest contribution to the increasing numbers