Philly officials target drug-using community in Kensington

Multiple attacks against the drug-using community in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia have taken place during both International Overdose Awareness Day (Aug. 31) and now during Recovery Month (September).

Kensington remains under attack by the NIMBY (Not in my back yard) forces of Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and Quetcy Lozada, member of the City Council’s “Kensington Caucus,” whose goal is to erase the drug-using community. There is blood on their hands, which will continue and grow until the people rise up to tell them, “No more!”

On Sept. 4, police arrested some 34 people on drug charges and open warrants. One person arrested, Amanda Cahill, died in her cell Sept. 7, due to a suspected drug overdose. According to a report in Metro Philadelphia, a nurse checked up on Cahill at 1:00 a.m., when Cahill said she was fine. Later, at 7:45 a.m., she was found unresponsive and died, despite being given CPR.

While Cahill had an open warrant for drug possession and had been arrested again for drug possession, she was a human being. Humans do not deserve to be in jail, especially not for merely possessing substances they have come to rely on to survive.

Like many people, Cahill came to rely on “illegal” drugs as a result of being prescribed legal drugs. While it’s unknown which prescription opioids she started on, it’s reasonable to blame the executives who pushed those drugs for profit for the chain of events that led to her death. After moving from prescriptions, she went onto heroin, which itself became rare when fentanyl analogues became the primary drug in the drug supply line.

Amanda Cahill’s loss leaves two children without a mother. The criminal injustice system and the drug makers are responsible for their loss.

Police attacks on overdose Meds

The Philadelphia Police Department — who have known about the International Overdose Awareness Day for years — decided to attack, claiming the people couldn’t hand out items at the event. What was being handed out were boxes of Narcan (the overdose reversing drug also called naloxone) and clean clothes, as many people in Kensington are homeless and without clean clothing. In past years the police have allowed this event to be held.

What has changed was the city administration and the Kensington Caucus. Mayor Parker has declared her opposition, disregard and loathing of chaotic drug users, that is, those whose drug use is uncontrolled. They claim sympathy for the plight of neighborhood citizens and say they want these users to get carceral “help,” but their actions show that their goal is to gentrify the neighborhood, which to them starts with removing the homeless and the chaotic drug users.

Politicians seek ban on harm reduction mobile units

Councilmember Lozada has decided to target services that improve and save the lives of chaotic drug users in Philadelphia’s Seventh District. She wants to ban the presence of harm reduction mobile units in residential areas and areas near recreational centers. Anyone running a mobile unit could then be fined $500, with another bill targeting “littering” near these mobile sites that would fine people another $500.

Lozada claims she wants to work with the community, the services and the mayor to have areas where these units can run and help drug users. The reality, though, is that she wants to purge the neighborhood of chaotic drug users. She claims that these units have caused “nuisance behavior” and “public safety issues,” but they merely operate where these drug users congregate. Just moving the vans won’t do much, as some users will not change their using location just to find a van.

The other members of the Kensington Caucus, Councilmembers Mark Squilla, Mike Driscoll and Jim Hagerty, back this bill, unsurprisingly, because they also serve as both Lozada’s lackeys and as agents of developers trying to transform Kensington into a hot gentrified neighborhood that real estate interests can exploit.

Between the sweeps which resulted in Amanda Cahill’s death, the attacks on the International Overdose Awareness Day memorials, and the attacks on harm reduction mobile units, one tying string can be seen: a disdain for chaotic drug users and a disdain for the people who want to help or love them.

We — revolutionaries, chaotic drug users actively using or in recovery and the loved ones of people who use — need to come together in Philadelphia and push back on these reactionary attacks. Someone you may love depends on it.

This article is dedicated to Amanda, Tyler, Paul and many others who have passed on due to the scourge of drugs.