News/Commentary

Former addict says Philadelphia businesses are setting up booby traps to combat open-air drug market

August 17, 2023 | | Print Article

The drug problem in the City of Brotherly Love has reportedly spiraled so far out of control that Philadelphia businesses have been forced to “booby trap” their entrances to keep the addicts “off of their stoops.”

“They have to set up these crazy little hacks and booby traps just to keep people off of their stoops,” Frank Rodriguez, himself a former drug dealer and addict, told Fox News Digital. “There are businesses that set up sprinkler systems, so they can just be inside and hit a button and the sprinkler system goes off.”

As BizPac Review has previously reported, the situation on the streets of liberal-led Philadelphia is like a scene out of “The Walking Dead,” as homeless people hopped up on the potent drug  Xylazine, more commonly known as “tranq,” roam the city’s devastated Kensington neighborhood.

“They have open, gaping wounds, they can’t walk, and they tell me, ‘If I go to the hospital, I’m going to get sick.’ They’re so terrified of the detox,” said Sarah Laurel, who runs the local nonprofit outreach organization Savage Sisters, in May. “The streets are lined with garbage. You can smell infection. There are hundreds of unhoused individuals without access to public restrooms, or showers, or housing, And it’s sad.”

“You can just walk out to Kensington Avenue and smell the rotting flesh,” she stated at the time. “It’s awful.”

According to Rodriguez, it is impossible for anything to “thrive” in such an environment.

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“The businesses don’t last long. When they are put in the community, the community tends to tear them down,” he told Fox News Digital. “It’s not a place for anything to thrive.”

(Video: Fox News Digital)

The Kensington area “had among the worst violent and drug crime rates citywide over a 30-day period ending Aug. 14, according to data compiled by The Philadelphia Inquirer,” Fox News notes.

“I couldn’t imagine the customers to my business having to come through all this chaos just to support my business,” said Rodriguez, who now owns a business of his own. “Who wants to come down to this neighborhood … to shop here? Who wants to do that? Nobody.”

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Restaurant owners are experiencing a drop in nightly servings, and vendors are refusing to deliver to the area due to safety concerns.

Those working in the neighborhood “have to come out every single day and clean up numerous times,” Rodriguez said. “There’s needles, vomit, feces, bodies.”


(Video: YouTube)

Residents “can’t even shop in their own community,” he noted.

“There’s people that are literally just waiting for you to nod off,” Rodriguez said, “so they can go in your bag, take your money, take your drugs, take the shoes off your feet.”

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Meanwhile, Democrat Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has announced his state is committed to — no, not its citizens — its state parks.

The governor stated on X that the state is spending “$112 million to improve our parks and forests and create a new Office of Outdoor Recreation.”


“If the park ain’t safe,” stated one user on X, “no amount of money will solve problems.”

Melissa Fine
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