Philadelphia Cracks Down on Notorious Kensington Open-Air Drug Market, Ground Zero of ‘Tranq’ Epidemic: Will Anyone Be Prosecuted?

Philadelphia’s mayor, like other Democratic leaders, is taking a tougher-on-crime approach. But ‘nobody talks about the prosecution aspect,’ one observer tells the Sun.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood, seen here on July 19, 2021, is plagued by rampant drug abuse. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

As Philadelphia plans a clean-up of a neighborhood that’s home to the largest open-air drug market on the East Coast, questions are emerging about whether the tough-on-crime talk by the city’s Democratic mayor will be backed up by actual prosecutions. 

The city is planning to clear a homeless encampment on Kensington Avenue on Wednesday, in part of a larger strategy by Philadelphia’s mayor, Cherelle Parker, to revitalize the city’s notorious Kensington neighborhood — a squalid zone of homelessness, drug use, and prostitution – which has become “ground zero” for Pennsylvania’s opioid epidemic and the larger “tranq” crisis ravaging the East Coast. 

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