A neighborhood in the Bronx in New York City is struggling under the weight of the opioid epidemic sweeping across the country and claiming tens of thousands of American lives.
Shocking images show the reality of life in the South Bronx, which has the highest rate of heroin-involved overdoses in the city, and where residents can’t escape the sight of the public health crisis.
Like the rest of the nation, New York City is struggling to contain the opioid crisis that doesn’t discriminate against gender, race, or class.
More than 1,370 New Yorkers died from overdoses last year, and 80 per cent of those deaths involved opioids.
That’s twice the number of deaths from homicides and car accidents combined, according to the New York Daily News.
Michael and Johnathan, two heroin addicts, rest in an encampment on the street that they call home in the South Bronx
The South Bronx in New York City has the highest rate of heroin-involved overdoses in the city
While the opioid crisis is sweeping the nation, residents of the South Bronx can’t ignore it, as drug addicts line the streets
Photographer Specer Platt’s photos show the arms of heroin users, which are badly scarred from years of drug abuse
Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 50, and the leading cause of accidental death in the US.
In the South Bronx, though, the epidemic plays out in plain view, with addicts living on the streets and shooting up in front of bystanders.
Photographer Spencer Platt’s haunting photos show children walking past heroin users sprawled on their homemade shelters.
They are pictured mixing the drug before injecting it into their arms or hands, which are completely scarred from severe drug abuse.
More than 1,370 New Yorkers died from overdoses last year, and 80 per cent of those deaths involved opioids
According to the New York Times, if the South Bronx were a state it would have the second-highest rate of drug overdose deaths in the country
34 out of 100,000 people die from drug overdoses in the neighborhood, with most deaths being linked to heroin
Opioid addicts in the South Bronx are older and poorer than in the rest of the country. Most of them are black or Hispanic and have lived on the streets for years
The opioid epidemic is gripping the neighborhood so intensely that if it were a state, it would have the second-highest rate of drug overdose deaths in the country after West Virginia, at 34 per 100,000 people, with most deaths being linked to heroin, according to the New York Times.
The crisis has recently worsened as heroin has arrived in New York City laced with Fentanyl, a sedative normally used on terminal cancer patients that is 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine, and that has been linked to more than half of fatal overdoses in the city since July, per the NYT.
Addicts in the neighborhood tend to be older and poorer than in the rest of the nation – most are being black or Hispanic and have been hooked on drugs and living on the streets for years.
While the area has always struggled with heroin abuse since the 1960s, it leveled off in the 1980s and 1990s, before exploding again in the past five years, according to the New York Daily News.
The South Bronx has struggled with heroin since the 1960’s but it surged five years ago after leveling in the 80s and 90s
Brook, a heroin addict, has lived on the street for five years- since about the time the opioid crisis exploded in the country
Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of accidental death in the US, surpassing car wrecks
As in the nation at large, the opioid crisis in the South Bronx has recently worsened, as heroin has arrived in New York City laced with Fentanyl, a sedative normally used on cancer patients that is 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine