A New York City straphanger casually trotted out his drug paraphernalia on a subway train and brazenly shot up during Tuesday morning’s commute, video shows.
The disturbing 31-second clip — taken by New York Post Associate Editorial Page Editor Michael Benjamin — shows the fashionably dressed, long-haired man tie off his right arm with a blue plastic band before injecting an unknown substance into his vein just before 10 a.m. on the No. 6 train in Manhattan.
After ripping off the tourniquet, the man takes a deep breath, brushes back his hair and then turns to look around the subway car with the syringe still jammed in his arm, the footage shows.
“Initially, I thought he was rolling a joint, so I continued writing a text to my son’s teacher,” Benjamin said. “When I saw him pull out the blue elastic band, I decided to record him.
“Concern for my safety only arose when I realized that he was still brandishing the uncapped syringe.
“What if he decides to stick me or someone else? I put away my phone and focused on him as he jumped around the subway car before exiting at [East] 77th Street. He also dropped what looked to be a box of syringes.”
Benjamin tweeted the video clip, adding, “NYC, 1983? F#*k no. It’s NYC 2023 @ 9:50 AM. Wonder if Mr. Junkie got his supplies from a @nycHealthy vending machine.”
He was referring to a new city Health Department vending machine in Brooklyn that dispenses crack pipes, the overdose-reversing drug Narcan, fentanyl testing strips and other paraphernalia in a controveresial effort to help users stay alive.
The city’s pilot vending machine in Brownsville does not feature syringes, but officials have said they are thinking of adding them to prevent dangerous needle-sharing.
About 2,700 peopled died of a drug overdose in the city in 2021 — a 78% increase from 2019, according to Big Apple statistics released this year.
Fentanyl, which can be found in street drugs including heroin, the ”zombie drug” known as tranq and cocaine, was present in 80% of the overdose deaths, officials said.
Neither the NYPD nor the MTA immediately responded to Post requests for comment.