Pains of addiction: How this West Village plaza has become a hotbed of suffering for drug users and locals alike

The area near McCarthy Square, a small patch of green space at the corner of 7th Avenue and Charles Street in the West Village, has become an epicenter of drug abuse for down-on-the-luck individuals openly injecting themselves with opioids, and local residents say few people are doing anything to stop it.

McCarthy Square has seen a surge of individuals spread out on the sidewalk, some with needles jutting out of their arms. Others hunker down near the square alongside buildings where they take up shelter as neighbors pass them by on the street.

The square rests at an intersection of heartbreak in Manhattan — with local residents and business owners concerned about the rise in drug abuse in the area on one side, and the drug users who say they are suffering in plain sight on the other.

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