'Zombie drug' horror unfolds on streets

A 78-second video on the internet that shows droves of what are said to be homeless drug addicts aimlessly staggering through streets, surrounded by tents and scattered trash in the United States has attracted global attention.

The dystopian footage depicts a drug-infested hellhole on the streets of Philadelphia, the most populous city in Pennsylvania, according to the British newspaper Daily Mail.

The neighborhood of Kensington, dubbed ground zero in relation to the city's drug crisis, is seen populated with zombie-like addicts.

"I've never seen human beings remain in these kinds of conditions," Sarah Laurel, executive director of an outreach organization, Savage Sisters, was quoted as saying by the report. "They have open, gaping wounds and they can't walk."

"It is sad to see the state of the US at the moment," sammy151, an internet user in New South Wales, Australia, said in a comment under the article.

The horrific streetscape was caused by a flood of xylazine, also known as "tranq" or "zombie drug", which is a non-opioid agent the US Food and Drug Administration approved in 1972 as a sedative and analgesic for use in veterinary medicine. It is now an object of desire among addicts who want to heighten the effects of heroin, fentanyl and cocaine.

Between 2020 and 2021 the number of xylazine detections by the US Drug Enforcement Administration almost trebled in the southern part of the United States, and more than doubled in the country's west. On April 12, the US administration designated fentanyl combined with xylazine as an "emerging threat" to the country.

When people use these drugs, they can experience serious side effects. Some of the symptoms that have led to the use of the term "zombie drug" include states of extreme confusion, violent and aggressive behavior, loss of coordination, hallucinations, and even psychotic episodes, the French media website VL reported earlier in June.

Like many cities in nearly 50 other states, a similar scenario is playing out in San Francisco, with personal stories of drug addicts laid out on the streets and violent assaults frequently told by residents and business owners, Fox News Digital reported last week.

A report published recently by the San Francisco Controller's Office said that nearly half of the city's commercial footpaths had feces on them in 2021 and into 2022.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 107,375 people in the US died of drug overdose and drug poisoning in the 12 months ending in January 2022, with 67 percent of them involving synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.

"This is the price of liberalism," said a British internet user going by the name of BugKhan. "Society needs rules and regulations and they need to be enforced."

Xinhua