Inside America's Largest Open-Air Drug Market

Peter Santenello creates "videos about a world the media fails to capture"^x. In this documentary, he travels to Kensington, Philadelphia to meet Buddy Osborn, a longtime community leader who reached out to share the realities of one of America's largest open-air drug markets. Through Buddy's perspective, viewers witness the devastating impact that addiction, drug trafficking, and public disorder have had on residents, families, and especially the children growing up in the neighbourhood.

Alongside documenting the crisis, the film highlights the work of The Rock, the organization Buddy founded to help people access treatment while providing local youth with a safe, supportive alternative to crime, drugs, and violence.

"When you allow accountability to come into your life … Now you gotta look at your own heart and you gotta say, what's wrong and what's right? What do I gotta stop? What do I gotta do? What do I gotta give up and what do I gotta step into? I had to do that myself."

"You saw how many people, that was just a handful. There's dozens and dozens of those examples that you saw laying all over Kensington. That's somebody's mother, that's someone's father, someone's daughter, someone's son. It's a family member. There's gotta be some stringent rules that have to be put in place and then they have to respect it."

"People have the wrong idea about what a rehab actually is. When they go into rehab, they learn about what sent them there in the first place, the dopamine responses, the chemical imbalances, all the technical stuff like that, but where they really learn how to recover."²

"These kids could be standing on the block – moving rock, selling drugs. And now they're here at a safe haven, safe refuge for these kids."

"Here's how it works. When you want to get right, you want to get well, we'll give you a shower. We'll put clothes on their back and then we'll get 'em to a hospital. We'll get 'em to a detox. We'll get 'em to a treatment place. We use it [donations] to get people to detox, plane fares, bus fares. Every cent that comes from this tent, that's a benevolence fund."

¹ Research indicates that the average person with a substance use disorder requires multiple attempts to achieve long-term recovery, often with a median of 2 serious recovery attempts. While the commonly cited statistic that 7 or 8 attempts are needed is a myth, addiction is a chronic disease requiring persistent, managed care.
² Psychoeducation groups assist recovery by explaining addiction's impact on the brain, teaching methods to restore dopamine balance, and developing healthy coping strategies to manage stress/anxiety and prevent relapse. These groups promote brain recovery and long-term sobriety through cognitive behavioral techniques, mindfulness, and lifestyle changes.