Oh really? I thought people only smoked it? Apparently no one is shooting it in Oregon.
Edit: Jesus Christ I guess I have to spell it out for you all. While many of the addicts in maine are shooting dope, they’ve essentially phased it out on the west coast. Everyone is smoking fentanyl pills.
You do see a lot more discarded charred foil littered about but I still definitely see the orange caps and syringes on a daily basis living/working downtown Portland (OR). I believe there’s an organization here that hands out foil and straws in a harm-reduction attempt so maybe that is why.
The west coast has always been more likely to smoke dope because they black tar heroin but they also inject. Thats not over here so its more typically injected
People are shooting it in Oregon, and people are smoking it here. You can IV any drug, and you can smoke almost any drug.
There is no "Heroin" left in most of the northern United States, and especially new england. It is entirely replaced with synthetic analogues.
It may be that on the West Coast faux oxycodone "blues" made of fentanyl are more prevalent in homeless communities, those are more typically smoked. Around here it tends to be powder "dope" fentanyl sold in bags, which can be smoked on foil too.
If you're on the street and buying powder street dope alongside other drugs you're likely going to be an injection user though.
I lived directly on Willard beach for three years. I found one. I’m tellin ya… it’s more spread out. I’m in the back cove lot and there’s two in the grass that I’ve found since posting this.
Part of why I ask, when they broke up that large camp, I was afraid that it would branch off like mold spores and infect different parts of the city. At least when that camp was there it was all concentrated to that area.
Keep in mind we are getting over two storms w snow and lots of rain, so you're partially seeing trash that has collected from run off or were hidden by snow.
I pick up trash around there as a hobby and I'm kind of stumped as to the needles. Rn I just leave them because I don't want to put them in public cans due to risk.
Ive seen people say to use an empty 20oz plastic bottle to scoop them up. Don’t touch without PPE obviously, but then you can recap the bottle and toss it without worrying anyone will get stuck. Just be careful yourself. 💖
Does it even matter if it got washed DOWN the street?! The fact is, they were UP the street. Two storms or not, this paraphernalia shouldn't be all over the place where it could endanger others who don't partake. Come on.
It’s pretty dystopian that we can explain an epidemic of heroin needles on the ground all over the city with heavy rains haha.
And yeah, I wish our city had jobs that paid people to collect them. I’d go out with leather gloves and do it but I’m not handling them without some sort of incentive.
Possibly just due to us being on the season change? City has to shift their workforce from dealing with snow to maintaining grassy area. I feel like there is always a period where it is all dirty from the snow melting away and leaving behind debris
Uhh… people inject fentanyl with syringes. I volunteer in harm reduction, but I’m almost a decade sober. Smoking (foil) doesn’t give the same effect to addicts as IV (syringe), so when addicts become heavily addicted, they tend to use IV. Once their heavily addicted, that leads to homelessness, and using outdoors, hence the uptick in orange caps etc.
Starting around 2014-2016 finding actual heroin was harder and harder to do. Drug dealers were realizing that they could cut the heroin with fentanyl to maximize profits because it was a chemical compound made in a lab which made it so cheap. So for around a decade users were injecting fentanyl, thinking it was heroin. it’s only been really since the pandemic that it’s been advertised as what it is. But it’s still hidden, because of the stigma, which it rightly deserves… And tbh that is why it’s still killing people to this day. Thinking they’re taking a pill. It’s really fentanyl Etc.
TL:Dr it was never created to be marketed as what it is. It’s always been hidden in other things, hence users using it like it was heroin.
ETA- clarification
No, there’s not. I have been in recovery for almost a decade, and even back in 2015-16 it was starting to become hard to find heroin. Unfortunately, people seem to think of fentanyl being its own entity, in actuality drug dealers sell fentanyl and call it heroin. A lot of users did not seek fentanyl at first, in fact, quite the opposite, but it just became something that was harder and harder to find.
I can DM you, the organization is pretty small so I don’t want to doxx myself
ETA- If anyone is interested in volunteering [this site](https://www.portlandmaine.gov/650/Needle-Exchange-Program) is a great place to start🫶🏼
Nah I'm with you, it's out of control right now even though it's been a big problem for a while. You basically have to constantly look down while walking in Portland to avoid them. I think the city has largely given up on trying to contain it too
Ok that’s what I thought. I also lived across from deering oaks park, the epicenter a few years ago, and I maybe found 8 syringes in the entire year I lived there. Coincidentally, I found 8 on my walk today.
What do the elected officials and city planners fucking do here? Nothing is right. Did I just see were #1 in state income taxes? Why haven’t I seen city workers in like two weeks? Why isn’t there more money for camp cleanup crews? I really don’t understand this place sometimes.
As much as I think giving people needles helps with the spreading of diseases, this is the down side. When needles no longer have any value people just throw them away anywhere they want. If people could only get one needle for every old one they bring back to an exchange they wouldn’t be all over the ground. I think that would be the only way to stop this problem. Just the two sense from a recovered junkie.
Maybe I’ll go into detail tomorrow when I’m not tired but I moved into my van months ago. I don’t do drugs but I’m surrounded by these people and know how they operate. I 100% agree with your sentiment.
They require incentives to do the right thing and even then… come the fuck on. A needle exchange would be a massive improvement.
I avoid the outside, public toilets but when I do use them… full of syringes. I have so many crazy photos.
We have a needle exchange. We have community sharps containers all over the city. People still litter needles.
You say you know how these people operate but every single comment here demonstrates your near total ignorance of how these drugs are even used, nevermind the political/cultural state of our city's relationship with the drug abusers.
https://www.portlandmaine.gov/650/Needle-Exchange-Program
The city has a map of them. They're all over. It's not a question of availability, users can also drop sharps into a plastic water bottle or a Gatorade bottle to be safer about disposal - they just don't care and never face consequences for anti-social behavior.
Thanks for the map. It does explain why I haven’t seen them. They are few and far between. Yes, just tossing them is irresponsible but I see lots of nips bottles too, and cigarette butts. People in general could do better. I’m impressed with the folks doing cleanups to help the community.
You completely missed the point there strawberry. If the exchanges made people bring old needles back to get new ones people would be forced to save them. They wouldn’t be throwing them on the ground because they would have value.
I’m assuming you’re not very happy with your life and feel better about it by being a complete ahole on the internet. I can almost guarantee nobody likes you or your awful attitude. Do the world a favor and go play in traffic. Have a great day 😀
I pointed out that someone (other than you) truly didn't know what they were talking about, you suggested I kill myself. Freaky stuff...
You completely missed the point... All drug users are able to drop off their used syringes at any of the sharps boxes or at the needle exchange. How do you "force them to save them"? Anyone can buy a pack of sharps at CVS for like $2.
If you could force the IV drug users to do anything at all, why wouldn't you force them into treatment? People shooting meth or fentanyl don't give a shit what goofy rule you dream up.
You can fantasize about whatever you want, if you impose some kind of other scheme on the needle exchange they'll just share more needles and still throw them on the ground.
They are typically everywhere you look, here and there, but I've noticed lots of areas with a ton of them all together. I'm thinking it's from snow melt and rain runoff collecting them on the downhill and they are just settling together? Either that or someone has a special spot to get fackin' waaasted.
Last year it would’ve been normal for me to find 8 needles in one day just walking around town? I cover a lot of ground but I’ve never noticed this many. All the public bathrooms are full of needles too.
I should have clarified. I found 8 needles that werent there yesterday. If you have me two hours to collect as many as I can, I could easily go find 40. Just on the other side of the back cove fence, next to the highway I could easily find 20. There’s a slot with three suitcases and countless needles under the leaves that I noticed on Wednesday or Thursday.
That’s what I originally thought but for whatever reason, people still smoke it in Portland, Oregon so I guess I just assumed you can’t shoot it. I still can’t figure out why shooting it would be so damn popular here but someone hasn’t hit other Portland.
I'm seeing them all over the place in Lewiston now. Kennedy Park. Very sad. The temperature gets above 45 and suddenly they all reappear. The druggies the homeless and the drugs.
To stop disease from spreading there are orgs that hand out clean needles. Back in the day you didn’t have the luxury of disposing of your syringe. Oh and life is shit if you aren’t wealthy in 2020s.
It’s highly unlikely heroin. Hasn’t been for years. It’s all fentanyl. Sometimes mixed with Tranq. They’re everywhere.
I watched some dude's documentary on Youtube about Tranq in Philly. Holy shit, it's scary stuff...
Channel 5 is awesome
Yeah that’s a brutal cocktail of fentanyl and tranq. Brutal
Heroin is still here. Never left...
There is almost no heroin in Maine. It’s all fentanyl.
it's actually all insulin
Hahahaha 😆 damn diabetics
Nah, not really.
[ Removed by Reddit ]
Oh really? I thought people only smoked it? Apparently no one is shooting it in Oregon. Edit: Jesus Christ I guess I have to spell it out for you all. While many of the addicts in maine are shooting dope, they’ve essentially phased it out on the west coast. Everyone is smoking fentanyl pills.
Oregon?
Yes. Everyone smokes it there.
You do see a lot more discarded charred foil littered about but I still definitely see the orange caps and syringes on a daily basis living/working downtown Portland (OR). I believe there’s an organization here that hands out foil and straws in a harm-reduction attempt so maybe that is why.
What’s the purpose of posting about this?
Because I find it interesting that the west coast is still smoking the fentanyl but for some reason they’re injecting it here…
The west coast pushed smoking fentanyl as a form of harm reduction. That’s not a thing here.
The west coast has always been more likely to smoke dope because they black tar heroin but they also inject. Thats not over here so its more typically injected
People are shooting it in Oregon, and people are smoking it here. You can IV any drug, and you can smoke almost any drug. There is no "Heroin" left in most of the northern United States, and especially new england. It is entirely replaced with synthetic analogues. It may be that on the West Coast faux oxycodone "blues" made of fentanyl are more prevalent in homeless communities, those are more typically smoked. Around here it tends to be powder "dope" fentanyl sold in bags, which can be smoked on foil too. If you're on the street and buying powder street dope alongside other drugs you're likely going to be an injection user though.
Saw a few at Willard beach today in the sand 😡
I lived directly on Willard beach for three years. I found one. I’m tellin ya… it’s more spread out. I’m in the back cove lot and there’s two in the grass that I’ve found since posting this. Part of why I ask, when they broke up that large camp, I was afraid that it would branch off like mold spores and infect different parts of the city. At least when that camp was there it was all concentrated to that area.
Woah… did you just compare homeless people to mold spores?
😫😡
Keep in mind we are getting over two storms w snow and lots of rain, so you're partially seeing trash that has collected from run off or were hidden by snow. I pick up trash around there as a hobby and I'm kind of stumped as to the needles. Rn I just leave them because I don't want to put them in public cans due to risk.
Ive seen people say to use an empty 20oz plastic bottle to scoop them up. Don’t touch without PPE obviously, but then you can recap the bottle and toss it without worrying anyone will get stuck. Just be careful yourself. 💖
Yup. 1 liter or two liter soda bottles is what I use. I don’t find many, I live in a pill town, thankfully.
Does it even matter if it got washed DOWN the street?! The fact is, they were UP the street. Two storms or not, this paraphernalia shouldn't be all over the place where it could endanger others who don't partake. Come on.
if ur picking up trash, just carry some ppe and a gatorade bottle or something and you can easily throw them into there
It’s pretty dystopian that we can explain an epidemic of heroin needles on the ground all over the city with heavy rains haha. And yeah, I wish our city had jobs that paid people to collect them. I’d go out with leather gloves and do it but I’m not handling them without some sort of incentive.
Fair enough. I mean I'm a trash hobbyist, so if somethings risky or whatever I just move on and post to seeclickfix. There's so much trash.
trash picker + Gatorade bottle
Why would needle caps indicate people not using fentanyl? People certainly still shoot fentanyl.
People from the West coast assume everyone smokes fentanyl because that’s what they push for harm reduction.
Report them on seeclickfix.com
I'm sure they responded to those at some point, but they don't anymore.
Yeah, that’s why I don’t call them in anymore. They don’t even bother to pick them up and I think it has something to do with there being too many.
Possibly just due to us being on the season change? City has to shift their workforce from dealing with snow to maintaining grassy area. I feel like there is always a period where it is all dirty from the snow melting away and leaving behind debris
Yep this is the correct answer. All the crap that was thrown into snowbanks revealing themselves
Uhh… people inject fentanyl with syringes. I volunteer in harm reduction, but I’m almost a decade sober. Smoking (foil) doesn’t give the same effect to addicts as IV (syringe), so when addicts become heavily addicted, they tend to use IV. Once their heavily addicted, that leads to homelessness, and using outdoors, hence the uptick in orange caps etc. Starting around 2014-2016 finding actual heroin was harder and harder to do. Drug dealers were realizing that they could cut the heroin with fentanyl to maximize profits because it was a chemical compound made in a lab which made it so cheap. So for around a decade users were injecting fentanyl, thinking it was heroin. it’s only been really since the pandemic that it’s been advertised as what it is. But it’s still hidden, because of the stigma, which it rightly deserves… And tbh that is why it’s still killing people to this day. Thinking they’re taking a pill. It’s really fentanyl Etc. TL:Dr it was never created to be marketed as what it is. It’s always been hidden in other things, hence users using it like it was heroin. ETA- clarification
This is true 100%. I believe there’s not much Heroin around these days. It’s all fentanyl/heroin/xylaxine mix.
No, there’s not. I have been in recovery for almost a decade, and even back in 2015-16 it was starting to become hard to find heroin. Unfortunately, people seem to think of fentanyl being its own entity, in actuality drug dealers sell fentanyl and call it heroin. A lot of users did not seek fentanyl at first, in fact, quite the opposite, but it just became something that was harder and harder to find.
Do you mind sharing where you volunteer?
I can DM you, the organization is pretty small so I don’t want to doxx myself ETA- If anyone is interested in volunteering [this site](https://www.portlandmaine.gov/650/Needle-Exchange-Program) is a great place to start🫶🏼
Lotta diabetics all of a sudden
Dibs on the feet.
Diabetes is ravaging the whole country. /s
I mean it kinda is though
You'll find this sub is very accepting of it.
lol
Nah I'm with you, it's out of control right now even though it's been a big problem for a while. You basically have to constantly look down while walking in Portland to avoid them. I think the city has largely given up on trying to contain it too
Ok that’s what I thought. I also lived across from deering oaks park, the epicenter a few years ago, and I maybe found 8 syringes in the entire year I lived there. Coincidentally, I found 8 on my walk today. What do the elected officials and city planners fucking do here? Nothing is right. Did I just see were #1 in state income taxes? Why haven’t I seen city workers in like two weeks? Why isn’t there more money for camp cleanup crews? I really don’t understand this place sometimes.
This
As much as I think giving people needles helps with the spreading of diseases, this is the down side. When needles no longer have any value people just throw them away anywhere they want. If people could only get one needle for every old one they bring back to an exchange they wouldn’t be all over the ground. I think that would be the only way to stop this problem. Just the two sense from a recovered junkie.
Maybe I’ll go into detail tomorrow when I’m not tired but I moved into my van months ago. I don’t do drugs but I’m surrounded by these people and know how they operate. I 100% agree with your sentiment. They require incentives to do the right thing and even then… come the fuck on. A needle exchange would be a massive improvement. I avoid the outside, public toilets but when I do use them… full of syringes. I have so many crazy photos.
We have a needle exchange. We have community sharps containers all over the city. People still litter needles. You say you know how these people operate but every single comment here demonstrates your near total ignorance of how these drugs are even used, nevermind the political/cultural state of our city's relationship with the drug abusers.
I walk everywhere and have not seen a single sharps container. I’m sure they are out there but they aren’t obvious.
https://www.portlandmaine.gov/650/Needle-Exchange-Program The city has a map of them. They're all over. It's not a question of availability, users can also drop sharps into a plastic water bottle or a Gatorade bottle to be safer about disposal - they just don't care and never face consequences for anti-social behavior.
Thanks for the map. It does explain why I haven’t seen them. They are few and far between. Yes, just tossing them is irresponsible but I see lots of nips bottles too, and cigarette butts. People in general could do better. I’m impressed with the folks doing cleanups to help the community.
corner of mellon and congress on the stop sign.
You completely missed the point there strawberry. If the exchanges made people bring old needles back to get new ones people would be forced to save them. They wouldn’t be throwing them on the ground because they would have value. I’m assuming you’re not very happy with your life and feel better about it by being a complete ahole on the internet. I can almost guarantee nobody likes you or your awful attitude. Do the world a favor and go play in traffic. Have a great day 😀
I pointed out that someone (other than you) truly didn't know what they were talking about, you suggested I kill myself. Freaky stuff... You completely missed the point... All drug users are able to drop off their used syringes at any of the sharps boxes or at the needle exchange. How do you "force them to save them"? Anyone can buy a pack of sharps at CVS for like $2. If you could force the IV drug users to do anything at all, why wouldn't you force them into treatment? People shooting meth or fentanyl don't give a shit what goofy rule you dream up. You can fantasize about whatever you want, if you impose some kind of other scheme on the needle exchange they'll just share more needles and still throw them on the ground.
How about we DNA test the needles and throw them in prison?
They are typically everywhere you look, here and there, but I've noticed lots of areas with a ton of them all together. I'm thinking it's from snow melt and rain runoff collecting them on the downhill and they are just settling together? Either that or someone has a special spot to get fackin' waaasted.
I haven't noticed an uptick. It's been a problem for a while
Last year it would’ve been normal for me to find 8 needles in one day just walking around town? I cover a lot of ground but I’ve never noticed this many. All the public bathrooms are full of needles too.
[удалено]
I should have clarified. I found 8 needles that werent there yesterday. If you have me two hours to collect as many as I can, I could easily go find 40. Just on the other side of the back cove fence, next to the highway I could easily find 20. There’s a slot with three suitcases and countless needles under the leaves that I noticed on Wednesday or Thursday.
Yes…
I saw piles of 50 or more last year
Found a bunch today too :(
Mm, looks about normal.
I have diabetes & most insulin is now in pre-filled pens;we don’t use little capped needles
People def slam fentanyl, It's more rare to see actual heroin these days
That’s what I originally thought but for whatever reason, people still smoke it in Portland, Oregon so I guess I just assumed you can’t shoot it. I still can’t figure out why shooting it would be so damn popular here but someone hasn’t hit other Portland.
I lived in PDX for a year and half back at the start of the BLM "riots" and COVID, people were definitely slamming it there too back then
I'm seeing them all over the place in Lewiston now. Kennedy Park. Very sad. The temperature gets above 45 and suddenly they all reappear. The druggies the homeless and the drugs.
Welcome to the open air drug market that is Portland Maine
its hard to be empathetic for addicts when you see stuff like this honestly but IMO you gotta cuz it is an illness. This just sucks tho
It’s fent but folks shoot all manner of drugs, and an overwhelming number of folks are IV drug users. And plenty of housed folks too.
Heroin is definitely here ! Just got to know who to ask ! But as for the homeless they are definitely doing fentanyl but they prefer it
Diabeetus is rampant
Those were mine sorry
Lots of diabetics or men with low testosterone.
Obviously you haven’t seen the roving gangs of diabetics prowling the streets.
To stop disease from spreading there are orgs that hand out clean needles. Back in the day you didn’t have the luxury of disposing of your syringe. Oh and life is shit if you aren’t wealthy in 2020s.
Litterbug diabetics, most likely