Inside Chicago's fight against the wave of synthetic drugs in the US
A BBC video report from Chicago's South Side shows how local communities are fighting a new wave of synthetic drugs in the United States. Overdose deaths have fallen, but authorities fear the crisis could worsen.
A new wave of synthetic drugs is spreading across the United States, raising fears that the country's drug crisis could worsen again. That is the picture in a BBC News video report from the South Side of Chicago, a part of the city in the state of Illinois.
The BBC's Quentin Sommerville visited communities there that are tackling the crisis on the ground. The report was filmed by camera journalist Darren Conway. It opens with a warning that it contains descriptions of drug-taking and distressing images.
Fewer deaths, but growing concern
Official figures show that overdose deaths have declined. They peaked at around 110,000 in 2022 and fell to roughly 70,000 last year.
Even so, America's decades-long drug crisis may be accelerating again. Authorities are increasingly worried about synthetic drugs that are cheaper and more powerful than earlier ones. One of them is tranq, the name given to an animal tranquilliser.
The political response
Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump pledged a crackdown on drug cartels, the criminal groups that traffic narcotics, and designated many of them as terrorist organisations.
The report links that political step and the new threat to what is happening in Chicago, showing how local communities are coping. The BBC has also published a longer article on the synthetic drug crisis sweeping the US.
