PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — More people are using illicit drugs across the city, according to recent data by Prevention Point Philadelphia, a harm reduction services nonprofit.
Executive Director Jose Benitez was surprised to see they are serving three times as many people — about 11,000 — as they did in 2019.
“That’s alarming to us,” he said, “because what it is saying is that we have more people who are using illicit drugs.”
A big part of that is an increase in people coming to them to figure out how to manage their opioid use disorder — so much so that Prevention Point is looking to expand its outreach and improve its syringe services program.
Looking at data between June 2021 and 2022, Benitez said they thought they would have seen a decrease in the number of people seeking services due to the pandemic. “That did not happen to us at all.”
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In addition to the 11,000 new people served in some capacity, Prevention Point officials collected more used syringes (about 10 million) than they distributed clean ones (9 million) during the same time period — a first in the nonprofit’s 30-year history.
Benitez points to the cheap price, greater exposure to opioids, and the increase in drug use nationwide during the pandemic.
According to data from 2021, opioids played a part in 82% of citywide drug-related deaths. Fentanyl was present about 94% of the time.
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