Human Toll Too High –

Feb. 4, 2018 – No place has been hit harder by heroin, fentanyl and opioid addiction recently than Hull, a former fishing town of 260,000 people about 150 miles north of London that was improbably named Britain’s 2017 “City of Culture.” On a drizzly cold day last month, under a bright green sign welcoming visitors to the city, several addicts lay bundled up, stashes of drugs and alcohol secreted in blankets and other belongings. Others lined the doorways of nondescript buildings on the city’s main street. Since the fishing industry collapsed in the 1970s, the city has suffered some of the highest rates of unemployment — currently 8.9 percent — and addiction in the country. The city’s easy transport links to the port and two major highways also facilitate drug trafficking.
Full Story @ NYTimes.com