As a teenager in the late 1960s in South Philly, I saw too many young people of my generation die of drug overdoses.
Prior to their overdoses, the drug addicts put their parents and other loved ones through a living hell. The drug addicts would steal from their families, and the sight of their physical deterioration broke their hearts.
To buy their drugs, the drug addicts would steal anything. No car eight-track tape deck or home stereo system and TV were safe from the “junkies.”
One drug addict I remember well is my late friend Stevie. Stevie had many advantages in life. He had loving and well-to-do parents who supported and loved him unconditionally.
Stevie was a popular young man. He was a cool guy, a genuine tough guy, and he was a good-looking guy whom the girls liked. He also had money to spend and a new car. One night Stevie was drunk and high, and he smashed up his new car. His father chewed him out but then bought Stevie another new car. Drunk and high once again, he subsequently smashed up the second car. And his father bought him yet another new car.
I enlisted in the U.S. Navy at 17 in 1970 and I spent the next two years on an aircraft carrier that sailed to Southeast Asia and participated in the Vietnam War.
When I returned home, I discovered that Stevie and many of the young men I grew up with had become full-blown drug addicts. I learned that Stevie had married a pretty girl who believed she could cure him of his addictions. She didn’t. They had a child, but Stevie was later thrown out of the house, and he rarely saw his child.
A few years later, Stevie was found dead of a drug overdose. Like many other South Philadelphians, Stevie’s life was wasted and ended far too soon due to drugs.
Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, heroin was the addictive drug of choice.
Today’s popular drug among addicts is fentanyl, mixed with synthetic drugs. These drugs, like heroin, are addictive, but they are much more deadly. I went on a ride-along with a Philadelphia detective through Kensington’s open-air drug market and saw the sad, stooped and staggering drug addicts. Closer to home, I’ve walked by Broad and Snyder Avenue and witnessed the drug addicts congregating there.
The Drug Enforcement Administration warned of the heightened threat of fentanyl mixed with emerging synthetic drugs.
“The United States continues to face an unprecedented and evolving drug threat driven by illicit fentanyl, which is increasingly mixed with a dangerous array of synthetic substances emerging in the illicit market. These combinations are making an already deadly drug supply even more unpredictable and lethal,” the DEA warned. “Law enforcement and public health officials are seeing fentanyl combined with highly potent substances such as xylazine, nitazenes, cychlorphine and medetomidine. Many of these substances are not approved for human use and are often undetectable to the user.
“Xylazine and medetomidine are used by veterinarians to sedate animals. Nitazenes and cychlorphine are potent, unregulated, synthetic opioids. New nitazenes tend to be introduced when regulatory actions, enforcement and drug scheduling put pressure on existing analogues. DEA has reported 22 unique nitazenes compounds since 2020, 21 of which are listed as Schedule I controlled substances.”
The DEA explains why this matters:
- Extreme Potency: These emerging synthetic drugs can be significantly more powerful than fentanyl and greatly increase the risk of suffering a fatal overdose.
- Hidden Mixtures: These substances are frequently mixed into counterfeit pills or fentanyl powder without the user’s knowledge.
- Reduced Reversal Effectiveness: Drugs like xylazine and medetomidine are not opioids, meaning naloxone may not fully reverse their effects, complicating overdose response. Other synthetics, such as nitazenes and cychlorphine, might require several doses of naloxone to be effective.
- Severe Health Impacts: Xylazine has been linked to devastating soft tissue damage, infections and prolonged sedation, while other synthetics can cause rapid respiratory depression and death.
The DEA offers public safety guidance:
- Never take a pill that wasn’t prescribed to you and dispensed by a licensed pharmacy.
- Assume all illicit drugs may contain fentanyl or other deadly additives.
- Carry naloxone and be trained in how to use it but understand it may not fully reverse all substances present.
- Call 911 immediately in any suspected drug poisoning or overdose. Time is critical.
- Stay informed and spread awareness. This threat is evolving rapidly.
As the DEA noted, today’s illicit drugs are much more dangerous, more deceptive and more deadly than ever before. And sadly, many more people like my friend Stevie will succumb to these deadly drugs. ••
Paul Davis’s Crime Beat column appears here each week. He can be reached via pauldavisoncrime.com.
