A 45-minute documentary highlighting the issues of homelessness, drug addiction and blight across the city of Española has drawn a strong response from the community.
YouTuber Nick Johnson’s video “I Went To The New Drug Capital Of The United States” is posted on his YouTube channel “Unboxing America,” which features videos about more than 40 states across the county, often focusing on the issues of substance abuse, homelessness and local government.
As of Monday, the Española video has about 115,000 views and 1,800 comments.
The video focuses on a local man named Lucas Martinez, who shares his experience of using drugs and being homeless in the city. The Rio Grande SUN attempted to reach Martinez via Facebook for this report, but did not receive a response.
Johnson uses Martinez’s story as an example of the issues the city faces. He also shows drone footage of areas where homeless people live and an interview with an unnamed man who shares his thoughts about drug use in the area.
Johnson provided a statement by email to the Rio Grande SUN, but did not respond to specific questions.
In his statement, he wrote that he has been to many cities across the United States that have the same issues as those in Española.
“The people I showed in Española are suffering on the streets, but they made a choice to live their lives in that way,” Johnson wrote in his email. “Most won’t ever turn their lives around. Hopefully every young person in (the) community watches my story on YouTube so that they are scared out of their minds, and won’t ever experiment with drugs. The only way we can turn this around is by encouraging the next generation to pick a different path. And the way we do that is by education.”
Comments left on social media, as well as people the Rio Grande SUN spoke with for this article, do not deny that the problems highlighted in Johnson’s video exist, but rather take issue with his choice to not highlight existing programs to help people and his lack of knowledge of the city as an outsider. They also point to his mispronunciation of the word “Española” as an example of his lack of knowledge.
Substance abuse, mental health and homelessness are real issues in the community, and people know this and see it everyday, Darrin’s Place Executive Director Suzanne Lujan said in an interview.
“In reality, the sad part about it is that a lot about what he said, it was correct,” she said. “I just wish he has the second part of what is in our community to follow up with — show the problem and show the solution.”
Fact check
Johnson’s video about Española is one of 12 he has produced about New Mexico. In the description of his video, her wrote that New Mexico has the highest amount of drug use in the United States. While he does not provide a source for this statement, a study released by WalletHub on April 30, that compiles data from 12 government agencies and non-governmental organizations ranks New Mexico as having the most drug use in the country. The top five states also include Alaska, Oregon, Nevada and Washington.
It is unclear how Johnson determined Española is the new drug capital of the United States.
Other things presented as facts in Johnson’s video are not completely true.
“It’s tragic and sadly behind me, it’s a fire station and back there is a baby box, a donation box that people can put their unwanted children in. They had to do that because there were so many teenagers in town that were throwing their unwanted babies into the dumpsters in town. That’s how bad fentanyl has wrecked this place.”
Assistant Fire Chief John Wickersham led the effort to install the city’s first baby box at the fire station after a deceased baby was found in a trash can in Alcalde in 2019.
Safe Haven Baby Boxes are used across the country and are temperature-controlled units installed in places like fire stations where people can anonymously surrender their child as an alternative to leaving it in a place like a dumpster.
No babies have been left in the box since it was installed, but four infants have been surrendered in baby boxes across the state, Wickersham said.
Local response
Like Lujan, District 4 City Councilor Sam LeDoux does not deny the problems in the community.
“I really want to get across the point that we have real problems that need to be addressed,” LeDoux said in a telephone interview. “This video highlights many of these problems, but the manner in which the video was conducted does more harm than good.”
LeAnne Salazar-Montoya was born and raised in the Española Valley and previously worked in local schools. She has a doctorate and currently works at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in the Department of Educational Psychology, Leadership, and Higher Education.
In a telephone interview, she said she is concerned about how something like this impacts the young people in the Española community.
“Because this man has such a large following, and he provided so many falsities about the community, it was concerning to me because I have two kids of my own that are under 12 years old … and when he makes such damning statements it not only hurts those who are currently being affected, but those children that are in our schools and hearing that this is the community they are being raised in,” she said.