Venom

Jenn injects meat tenderizer into her veins. 30 bags a day. Her own big brother gave her the first shot. She buys from 10-year-old kids. Nine bullets just flew past her on the train steps. Tomorrow her daughter turns 18, and her mom is on Kensington Ave with a needle in her arm. She's 35. 15 years on dope. Two years clean, once, back in 2017. Then the train came back for her. 30 bags a day. She once burned $1,000 in a single day. Her record is 7 days without sleep. Methadone, Suboxone? "It's not strong enough. I just add it to what I'm doing." So what is she even putting in her veins? "It's like meat tenderizer. I don't even know." Then why buy it? "I need it." She was 23 and already on pills when she ran out of Percs. Her older brother was on dope. She made him a deal. He got it for her, and he shot her up for the first time. Now he's out here too. She checks on him more than he checks on her. She had four older brothers. Two are gone. Her daughter lives with her dad. Jenn last saw her around 2015. She does the math out loud: "She'll be 18 tomorrow." In the video below she talks while trains roar over her head on Kensington Avenue. What happened before the camera got there? She walked up the steps and somebody let off nine shots. "I came this close." Who sells her the dope? "I buy my drugs from like 10-year-old kids." The women who disappear out here? "There's a lot of them. I just don't see them anymore." Some people will say she chose this the day she made her brother get it for her. Others will say a family where the big brother hands his little sister the needle never gave her a chance. "Once you lose all that, which I already have, it's over. Your life is on the sidewalk." What would you say to her daughter tomorrow?