Page 6 - ARUBA TODAY

A6 U.S. NEWS
Tuesday 1 augusT 2017
Notorious heroin market along train tracks to be cleaned up

patches of brush provide “This is going to be a long
cover for drug sales and us- journey, and today is re-
age in the sunken-in gorge. ally the beginning of many,
The hundreds of used sy- many, many months of
ringes mixed in with layers transformation,” city Coun-
of discarded tires, mattress- cilwoman Maria Quinones-
es and other debris require Sanchez said.
the expertise of a special- A half-hour before her re-
ized contractor because marks, a man squatting
of the danger they pose around the corner near a
to regular maintenance hole in the fence that’s sup-
crews, officials said. posed to block entry to the
People who use heroin gorge was seen rummag-
along the half-mile stretch ing through his backpack,
of railroad notoriously holding little baggies and
known as El Campamento pulling out a syringe.
can easily find somewhere A half-hour later, a woman
else to do drugs among the sat in the same spot, hold-
many abandoned or de- ing a needle in her hand.
molished homes that dot Officials estimate the bulk
the neighborhood. As city of the cleaning will take
and Conrail representa- 30 days but acknowl-
Trash including syringes lay amongst other discarded items near train tracks in Philadelphia, tives gathered in a grassy edged the timetable could
Monday, July 31, 2017. Workers are preparing to clean up the open-air heroin market that has lot across the street from change.
thrived for decades along a set of train tracks a few miles outside the heart of Philadelphia. the tracks to announce the City representatives said
(AP Photo/Matt Rourke) start of the cleanup effort, they’ll set up trailers that will
By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE train tracks miles outside onto the site. The problems a woman who lives next offer food, health screen-
Associated Press the heart of Philadelphia are many, they said of dis- door said neighborhood ings and information about
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The began Monday with offi- mantling a market that has residents usually are forced housing options to the doz-
cleanup of an open-air her- cials cautioning that the ef- helped supply the region to scour the lot for used ens of homeless people
oin market that has thrived fort will be long and difficult with drugs during a nation- needles before children who settle along the train
for decades along a set of as heavy machinery rolled al opioid epidemic. Thick play there. tracks from time to time.q

AP: After guilty plea, anti-drug

activist vows to continue fight

By DAVID PORTER than an epidemic. “This is
Associated Press the plague,” he said. “An
JERSEY CITY, N.J. (AP) — A epidemic, you’ll find a cure
man who was arrested in for eventually.
a truck filled with guns dur- A plague kills everything
ing an attempt to rescue a in its path.” Cramsey had
teenager he thought was in channeled his grief over
drug trouble has pleaded his daughter’s death into a
guilty to weapons charges mission to save others from
but says he isn’t going to the same fate. He started a
let that stop him from try- group for concerned par-
ing to save people from ents and recovering ad-
succumbing to the rav- dicts and began making
ages of opioid addiction. trips to homes and hotel
John Cramsey, who was rooms to pull people out of
spurred to action last year dangerous situations and
by his daughter’s death find them treatment, peo-
from a drug overdose, said ple involved in the efforts
Monday that saving oth- have said.
ers has become his calling. Few might have known
The 52-year-old gun range about Cramsey outside
owner from East Green- Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Val-
ville, Pennsylvania, was ar- ley had he, Dean Smith
rested with two other peo- and Kimberly Arendt not
ple last year during their been stopped on June 21,
aborted attempt to rescue 2016, near the Holland Tun-
a teenager in New York. nel in Jersey City. Smith, a
He pleaded guilty to the videographer and graph-
weapons charges on Mon- ic designer, was driving
day. Standing on the court- Cramsey’s neon-painted
house steps, he sounded truck, which police said
like a man who had just be- was pulled over because
gun to fight. He described it had a crack in its wind-
the scourge of heroin and shield and objects hanging
opioid addiction as worse from a rearview mirror.q