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Originally Posted by bdurk
As a native Philadelphian, the insight on the last page into tranq was very interesting to read about. Of course I've heard rumors about it but some real info was interesting to read about. I have noticed over time that drug user's sores seem to be getting worse and worse. I've seen multiple people with huge open wounds that look like something out of a war movie, it's horrifying. I've also seen videos of people's limbs just straight up falling off in Kensington. As for the actual drug problem here, obviously it's fairly visible, but not as bad as people think IMO. Kensington is actually nice in some parts and definitely turning around. I think Mayor Parker has a decent approach to the problem. She gets lots of criticism on her position on forced treatment. In my opinion, I honestly don't think it's that bad. Most of these people will probably never seek the treatment that they need. It's unfair to the families in Kensington who have these addicts come in from the suburbs and abuse their area and make it into a dump. I think that forced treatment may be the way to go after we see where the last decade of relaxed policies have gotten us. I am not super knowledgeable on the matter however, and would love to hear other people's opinions or examples where it has either worked or failed.
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Those wounds/sores if not caught early are basically untreatable/really hard to treat. The only real treatment if you have them past a certain point is removal of all of that tissue (up to the bone) or limb amputation, otherwise it slowly leads to sepsis and death. All those people you see with big open xylazine wounds are probably terminal, they have massive internal infection going on. The tissue you visibly see on the surface is necrotic, already dead. Those sores ooze smelly yellow puss, a combination of bacteria and your own internal tissue coming out (as most of the damage is actually happening internally, under the first layers of skin).
The only reason you don't see a lot more people on it, is because unlike heroin and cocaine, which you can technically do for decades, tranq kills you relatively fast. That first wave of pre-COVID tranq users, early adopters so to speak, is pretty much already dead. That is why you see drug death rates spike, its not the current users that are dying (unless OD), its mostly people who have been doing it for a few years. The human body is fairly resilient, and a lot of these tranq users get medical treatment for these wounds (cleaning and bandaging, etc), which prolongs the process and they take years to rot/die.
I personally think the tranq (xylazine+ fentanyl) epidemic will not last for decades (I think stuff like meth will outlast it), simply because the mortality rate is crazy high. I think these people will burn out in about a decade or two at most.