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Before departing to the U.S.-Mexico border as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar fellowship, George Mason �鶹���� professor ventured several times to Kensington, Pennsylvania, a bustling neighborhood in lower northeast Philadelphia. 

Accompanied by Texas journalist Sergio Chapa, Correa-Cabrera’s purpose was to further her research by investigating the origins and dynamics of the U.S. fentanyl crisis.

The resulting magazine story, published this week in the American Prospect magazine, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit forum addressing public policy, is titled “The Onion of Kensington,” a remarkable examination of the collision of the American dream and an immigrant community at the epicenter of the nation’s fentanyl tragedy.

It also illustrates, in her words, “Big Pharma’s role in spreading addiction” while “avoiding accountability for the devastation they’ve caused.”

“I have a hypothesis that the fentanyl crisis cannot be blamed exclusively on Mexican cartels,” said Correa-Cabrera, countering an argument used to justify trade wars with bordering countries. “The explanation is much more complex. I study drug trafficking and focus on the cartels and in my view, current U.S. drug policy is based on wrong premises. I went to Kensington to see the crisis firsthand.”

The experience, with its grim realities and uncertain solutions, was, she said, “very tough, but it was also very interesting.”

You can read the resulting story in the .