On Wednesday, The Philadelphia Inquirer published a decent article on a wound care clinic in Kensington, the center of the drug trade in the City of Brotherly Love, and how they’ve been struggling with injuries caused by “tranq,” the veterinary tranquilizer xylazine, which was never approved for use in humans, which dealers have been using to ‘cut’ opioids, to give them a longer effect.
Inside a Kensington wound care clinic
Xylazine, which was never approved for human use, has wreaked havoc in Kensington. Amputations among opioid users have more than doubled.
by Aubrey Whelan | Wednesday, November 26, 2025 | 5:00 AM EST
In a small clinic room at Mother of Mercy House on Allegheny Avenue in Kensington, Emma Anderson unwrapped a bandage from a man’s swollen hand.
“It hurts really bad in the cold,” the man said, wincing at the inflamed wound that covered most of a right-hand finger.
Cleaning it with saline solution proved so painful that Anderson, an EMT and St. Joseph’s University student, let the patient take the lead, wiping carefully at the yellowish-white tissue at the center of the wound.
It was his second time attending the wound care clinic at Mother of Mercy, the Catholic nonprofit that twice a week opens its doors to people with addiction dealing with the serious skin lesions, caused by the animal tranquilizer xylazine, that can develop into wounds so severe the only treatment is amputation.
There follows a long section telling readers about the work the Mother of Mercy House does, which is not necessary for this article, but I recommend readers to follow the embedded link to read it.
Much further down:
This year, medetomidine, another animal tranquilizer that causes severe withdrawal, has supplanted xylazine’s dominance in the Philadelphia area drug supply. Fewer patients addicted to opioids are visiting emergency rooms with soft-tissue damage, according to city data.
But it’s unknown how medetomidine affects those wounds, and there are still enough people suffering from them in Kensington, the epicenter of the city’s opioid crisis, that the clinic felt it necessary to increase its hours.
One doubts that the move away from xylazine by the drug dealers was meant for altruistic reasons. If medetomidine causes severe drug withdrawals, it would seem to be something to ‘encourage’ junkies to keep buying the junk.
But then there was Friday morning’s lead editorial:
It’s Trump — not service members — who could benefit from a reminder about following the law | Editorial
There’s nothing seditious about Democrats reminding military members not to follow unlawful orders.
by The Editorial Board | Friday, November 28, 2025 | 5:00 AM EST
Six lawmakers, including two from Pennsylvania, had good reason to remind military members not to follow unlawful orders, given Donald Trump’s illicit history and recent actions, such as sending federal troops into cities and boat strikes that violate international law.
The six Democrats, who either served in the military or the intelligence community, posted a short video telling their former counterparts that “no one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution.”
As William Teach noted, Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), one of the six Democrats who made that short video, admitted:
To my knowledge, I am not aware of things that are illegal — but certainly there are some legal gymnastics that are going on with these Caribbean strikes, and everything related to Venezuela.
And even the Editorial Board backtracked somewhat:
For example, the legality of Trump’s boat strikes — which have killed more than 80 people — is dubious.
A secret U.S. Department of Justice memo reportedly blessed the strikes by claiming the U.S. is in an armed conflict with drug cartels. But members of Congress from both parties argue it is illegal to target civilians — even suspected criminals — who do not pose an imminent threat. The United Nations’ human rights chief said the strikes violated international law.
It isn’t sedition for the six Democrats to make a video stating that American servicemen do not have to obey illegal orders, but their intent is clear: they wanted to cause some servicemembers to question orders that Senator Slotkin herself were not illegal. The Editorial Board certainly want you to believe that the strikes are illegal.
So, here we have the very same editors, who have read or should have read the previously cited article about the tremendous damage to which drug smuggling from Venezuela has done to our country. Those editors absolutely know about the devastation in Kensington, yet they are appalled, aghast, and outraged that President Trump is actually trying to do something to halt drug trafficking, just as they have waxed wroth about his efforts to reduce crime and stop illegal immigration and deport the illegals already here.
That President Trump sure is an evil genius! He’s managed to get the left to defend previously deported and returned again illegal immigrants accused of domestic violence, crime in our major cities, illegal immigration, and drug traffickers, all by the same people who told us that “No one is above the law” when the Democrats were trying to throw Mr Trump in jail.