Investigations

Open fentanyl use dominated sidewalks in four U.S. cities

YouTuber Nick Shirley posted field footage from Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia on Sept. 28, 2026.

In Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, open fentanyl use and resale filled sidewalks that sit beside closed restaurants, vacant banks, and tourist landmarks. YouTuber Nick Shirley walked each corridor with a camera and posted the report on Sept. 28, 2026.

Shirley opened in Portland's Chinatown, where a native of the city said midday overdoses are common and that he personally knew about 15 homeless people who died there last year. Oregon was the first state to decriminalize personal drug possession, and the guide argued that a large share of people on the street reject offered housing. Shirley filmed users smoking fentanyl in daylight, a man showing open sores, and needle exchanges handing out syringes, foil, and straws. Business owners and neighborhood groups have hired armed private security because storefronts stay boarded up.

In Seattle, Shirley walked near Pike Place Market with citizen journalist Jonathan Cho, past blocks of closed restaurants and shops. At 12th Avenue and Jackson Street, people slumped on corners while others resold stolen goods for cash to buy drugs. One woman said she had lost 21 friends to fentanyl and planned to enter Sundown Ranch in Yakima on the following Monday. Cho described King County Metro buses as a shuttle between big-box stores and open-air markets where boosted merchandise sells for pennies on the dollar.

In Los Angeles, Shirley toured Skid Row with a co-founder of the pharmaceutical startup Neutriband, which is developing an abuse-deterrent fentanyl patch. Shirley helped a mother and her young son gather belongings from a tent, paid for an Uber to a hotel, and arranged follow-up enrollment for the boy. At MacArthur Park, users ordered his crew to leave within minutes of arriving while people prepared drugs on park benches.

On Kensington Avenue in Philadelphia, Shirley filmed buyers and sellers in plain view as fire sirens sounded routinely. Residents described xylazine-laced fentanyl that can resist naloxone and said police sometimes stayed in cruisers while people nodded off nearby. One man said he once saw three unconscious bodies stacked on a sidewalk after users collapsed on top of one another.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that fentanyl was involved in more than 47,000 U.S. overdose deaths in 2024, roughly 130 deaths per day. NIDA describes fentanyl as a synthetic opioid roughly 50 times stronger than heroin; even small amounts can be lethal.

On Kensington Avenue, one resident told Shirley that treatment programs often last 30 days before insurers stop paying and participants return to the pavement.

Source video: Inside the Deadly Fentanyl Crisis Killing American Cities