(BALTIMORE – November 9, 2025) – When you hear “Penn-North,” what comes to mind? Be honest. There’s a pause. A look. That intersection at North Avenue—just south of Mondawmin Station, where the Freddie Gray uprising began—carries a stigma that most of Maryland would rather ignore.
But here’s what the rest of the state doesn’t want to admit: Penn-North is where their kids go to die.
BMORENews spoke with addictions counselor Steve Dixon, who revealed something that should alarm every family from Towson to Annapolis, from Montgomery County to the Eastern Shore. The drug unleashing havoc at Penn-North isn’t just fentanyl anymore. It’s nitazenes—synthetic opioids up to 500 times more potent than heroin, up to 50 times stronger than fentanyl…