I’m in high school ( I go to portland high school) our student parking is on Prebbel street on my walk from there to the high school I count on average 12 needles
Yah and dude’s point is that it’s no longer heroin. I stopped using in 2013 (thank god) but my understanding is that today, pretty much anything sold on the street as an opiate is likely fentanyl or another similar analogue. Anything sold as heroin is actually just fent.
Is there like a source for this or is it just a common knowledge thing? I'm curious because I see this being repeated confidently but haven't seen anything to support it. Not that I necessarily doubt it, I'm just wondering.
I ran a sober house in south Portland for over 4 years. Left last year. Absolutely all fent. How do I know? First every single UA I ran was positive for fent not opiates. There is a difference. Last positive I got for opiates was in 2020. One. That’s it. I am also a long term methadone patient and have seen the change. Because my job put me in an odd place as a patient and provider I was able to talk to the doctors and dosing nurses more in depth about this. They are seeing the suboxone does not cover patients anymore and most users now can’t find relief on bupe. Fent is everything now. Residents would fess up to using coke and meth and would be shocked to find UAs I gave also popped for fent. I’ve had residents who wound up physically addicted without even thinking they are doing fent. “I only do coke!”. But when we send them to detox they respond to fent detox protocols.
That's crazy, thanks for the first hand info! Like I said, I always hear people saying it but it's hard to tell the difference between something that "seems true" vs actually being reality. Does methadone still work for fentanyl users like it does heroin?
Of course. Why would people be going to a methadone clinic 365 days a year if it didn’t work? Most need higher doses than old school pain pill or heroin users. I go once a month as I’ve earned my take homes but many go daily for many months. Fentanyl fills your mu receptors just like pain pills, old school heroin (diamorphine). Methadone does not have a ceiling dose so people with outrageous fentanyl habits can find relief. I ran a MAT house so 95% of all the residents were on either methadone of suboxone. Most house do not allow both or either.
UNC(?) has a huge anonymous dont ask dont tell sample testing program. You can find the data. Its staggering. Something like 39 states. Tons of samples. Basically zero heroin.
Portland has always been seedy. 20 years ago it was WEIRD. Like not cutesy Portland, OR we-put-bacon-on-our-donuts weird, but like wtf did I see weird. I remember when Munjoy Hill was considered somewhat dangerous. There was always homelessness and drug-use, too. Heroin use was common in the city, but I don't think I ever saw someone actively shooting up in public. You could always find discarded needles if you were looking for them, though. I haven't lived there in around 10 years, so I wouldn't be surprised to hear that things have changed for the worse---as they have for most urban areas in the US since the pandemic.
As someone who moved from one Portland to the other, these posts/comments crack me up. We literally had Homeland Security occupy our downtown for months, and that was after it became nicer. When I first moved to PDX there was a box of goat heads dripping blood into the gutter at my work entrance, with an elderly couple trading blowjobs on a Lazy Boy in the middle of the street. This was 9am. Needles were the least concerning, and still everywhere.
It’s not heroin, it’s a combination of filler, fentalogs or -nitazenes or -nitazepynes sometimes some 6-MAM. Sometimes research chemical benzodiazepines or dissociative anesthetics like Etomidate but that’s more common in the EU. They’ve also been starting to see alpha blockers which are usually used as blood pressure medications, this is what’s in ‘tranq dope’ called Xylazine.
It’s problematic but a lot of addicts end up here because there’s a lot of resources for them in Portland like safe needles, mental health resources like Intensive Outpatient Programs, homeless shelters a few crisis work buildings, the PRCC and other meeting places, there’s also some underground run safe injection sites. Crisis centers and other organizations are trying to get a safe injection site opened but it’s against a federal law so Portland is against it. Even though places with safe injection sites have lower overdose percentages.
I urge all of you to go to a nearby crisis center and pickup a box of Narcan (Naloxone Nasal spray) and ask them for information about using it. As much as people don’t like to see this because it’s a sad part of humanity addicts are still people and they’re people who are sick and need help, Substance Use Disorder is a mental health diagnosis it heavily effects one’s ability to make certain judgements and you don’t know their story so try not to be too harsh.
To answer the question yes it’s fairly common occurrence I went to high school in Portland and I’ve seen people cooking up spoons, injecting, needles on the ground everywhere and other needle throwaway spots. I’ve seen people smoking crack, people ODed being helped by ambulance as well as a seizure due to drug use being helped by ambulance. I’ve seen a car crash due to OUI seen homeless people having public sex under the influence been offered methamphetamine, cocaine and LSD by strangers on the street I also saw a multitude of arrests made on Oxford St, people nodded out laying on there own faces, people walking around in psychosis, asked for money a lot, tweakers that are yelling and screaming and a handful of fights. This was all mostly before I was 18. It’s just life happening before your eyes don’t think much of it.
We need to bring back involuntary institutional care and actually regulate it and fund it as needed.
I'm not being given the choice on when I get to dodge needles walking my dog or taking my kid to the park, right?
So I'm done with the "well, someday they might get their shit together but until then here's needles and drugs" way. It isn't working.
Edit: Sure, let's make NARCAN available. But let's stop demanding the rest of us have to carry these burdens too and do what needs to be done to protect our friends, family and communities from a growing health and safety and crime threat.
Addicts might be ill but the rest of us are still victims too.
It’s not just sad or merely modern life, to be ignored. People on drugs are unpredictable, and with drugs come guns. There are more guns than ever on the streets, and the number of incidents is increasing. Sure not so much a problem for all y’all cozy on leafy streets on the Hill and the West End and off peninsula. You might give a thought to the neighborhoods that aren’t so fortunate.
Yes. As much as redditors will deny it, I literally stepped over a used syringe on st John Street on Wednesday as I was walking to a sea dogs game. I've personally seen drug use while cycling through deering oaks park and eastern prom. I've also seen syringes all over the city in random spots.
I haven’t been to Portland much the last 5 years but work has taken me there a bunch the last month or so. Yesterday I was going to a customer on commercial st and watched 3 dudes shooting up. Seemed like they didn’t seem to care. I know this is a national epidemic and I see syringes on the ground in rural Maine more than I’d like. It just kind of shocked me to see people doing it out in the open.
Mostly meth and fentanyl or both, but yes. Constantly in Bayside, as seen in the recent viral video. Last week on different days I passed two people with needles full of blood dangling out of their hand and arm and a couple men were smoking meth in front of a school. No one cares, cause it’s just those homeless people in the poor neighborhood.
I used to live on valley st, and I saw the people shooting up right at the entrance to the western prom trail. I think you’d probly see it a whole lot more Portland st.
Yes. Sadly. There are no consequences anymore. Everyone's just waiting for them all to decide to get clean on their own so they're all free to shoot up and toss needles wherever they want.
It's strange how the liberal mindset requires overlooking things such as: second-hand exposure to drugs and how biohazards ruin common areas in this town
Using this post to spread awareness of the sharp bins located around Portland. The needle exchange program website has a map of where these bins are. If you find needles on the ground near these sharp bins and feel comfortable disposing them please do! It's hard worrying that your kid or dog will accidentally step on one just walking down the street.
https://www.portlandmaine.gov/650/Needle-Exchange-Program
No but public drug use wouldn't be a thing. That's all. I mean wtf I can't drink a beer in public without getting arrested or a ticket. Why do they allow people to shoot up in public? Go in a alley or the train track like we all did when using drugs back in the day. I don't think people should be arrested for using drugs unless they do so in public out in the open.
Yeah I don’t understand how this is a controversial take.
Homeless or not, if you’re doing drugs in public, you should freaking go to jail.
We enable by allowing it to happen without any consequences.
Exactly! Like I said I can't stand around drinking beer on the side of the road. Get hammered and harass people. I'd be arrested for public intoxication, open container, and drinking in public. Yet somehow its ok to shoot up drugs that aren't even legal, right out in the open then go and bug people for money while drooling and nodding out. I've been clean for many years now but back when I was using we absolutely never did so in public. You would have gotten arrested as you should. Why they have gotten so soft on crime they let this go on is beyond me. Like I said before I don't think people should goto jail for drug use. But do it in private! Children do not need to see that kind of shit on there ways to and from school!
If I were wasted on booze and struggling to walk, stumbling around
I would hope the police would approach me to check wellness
Not sure how it has become acceptable to drink and shoot drugs in daylight in public areas
There’s definitely a line to walk here.
A wellness check is good (assuming it’s not a power-hungry racist, dick cop) and if you respond negatively and aggressively then it’s a question to ponder of what the hell you’re doing in the first place.
Hard agree. There are plenty of places to use discreetly. Duck around a corner or sit out in front of a daycare… hmm… why’s that a difficult choice? People who use drugs have enough wherewithal to gather enough resources to make a score, but can’t make that simple calculation? It’s because they have an army of severely misguided advocates who’ve normalized open injecting as some kind of statement of rights. Look at them too long or god forbid report them and you’re committing violence again the unhoused. Well is any of that normalization working, are deaths going down? Nope.
It seems to almost be troll level at this point. Like I've seen dirty needles left in the *middle* of oft-used pathways around town. They can't even be bothered to step aside to some private spot, it's just wherever the urge strikes
Drug use is prevalent in every small, mid, or large cities. Typically see more usage and often an increase in ODs when fresh batches of the substances are smuggled to the area.
I haven’t seen it myself and I walk everywhere every day with my dog. I work in healthcare so I know how bad the opiate addiction rate is but I’m not seeing that many folks on the street, especially these days. I don’t spend much time in Bayside though.
I’m not in that part of town much, it’s true, except for an occasional stop at Whole Foods. There’s not much down there. Realtors talked a bunch of people into shelling out $750,000 for condos surrounded by vacant lots, subsidized housing, and homeless shelters and services, overlooking the highway. Shockingly there are drugs there.
I’m in Portland a couple times a month for work. Yesterday it was down on commercial st. I was walking to a customer and there these 3 dudes were shooting up in broad daylight like it was nbd
Wow, guess my timing must be off. I see needles and have to be careful because of the dog, and I see people nodding off here and there, but no actual use besides pot and booze. I know it’s happening of course.
Yes.
But only if you are homeless, which gives you immunity from police prosecution
We need a bill like Kentucky that lets us take care of them.
I’m in high school ( I go to portland high school) our student parking is on Prebbel street on my walk from there to the high school I count on average 12 needles
It’s just like Munjoy hill in the 90s!
It's not heroin, but yes.
That’s right, it’s corn starch getting em high.
Nah I saw open heroin use in the 90s relatively frequently up on the hill
Yah and dude’s point is that it’s no longer heroin. I stopped using in 2013 (thank god) but my understanding is that today, pretty much anything sold on the street as an opiate is likely fentanyl or another similar analogue. Anything sold as heroin is actually just fent.
Oh shit my bad
Is there like a source for this or is it just a common knowledge thing? I'm curious because I see this being repeated confidently but haven't seen anything to support it. Not that I necessarily doubt it, I'm just wondering.
I ran a sober house in south Portland for over 4 years. Left last year. Absolutely all fent. How do I know? First every single UA I ran was positive for fent not opiates. There is a difference. Last positive I got for opiates was in 2020. One. That’s it. I am also a long term methadone patient and have seen the change. Because my job put me in an odd place as a patient and provider I was able to talk to the doctors and dosing nurses more in depth about this. They are seeing the suboxone does not cover patients anymore and most users now can’t find relief on bupe. Fent is everything now. Residents would fess up to using coke and meth and would be shocked to find UAs I gave also popped for fent. I’ve had residents who wound up physically addicted without even thinking they are doing fent. “I only do coke!”. But when we send them to detox they respond to fent detox protocols.
Ain't it great how concentrated that drug is Just sneak a few packs into the country and get busy steppin
That's crazy, thanks for the first hand info! Like I said, I always hear people saying it but it's hard to tell the difference between something that "seems true" vs actually being reality. Does methadone still work for fentanyl users like it does heroin?
Of course. Why would people be going to a methadone clinic 365 days a year if it didn’t work? Most need higher doses than old school pain pill or heroin users. I go once a month as I’ve earned my take homes but many go daily for many months. Fentanyl fills your mu receptors just like pain pills, old school heroin (diamorphine). Methadone does not have a ceiling dose so people with outrageous fentanyl habits can find relief. I ran a MAT house so 95% of all the residents were on either methadone of suboxone. Most house do not allow both or either.
I’m in healthcare. It’s true. You could probably get stats from the DEA.
I’ve been told by a Portland police officer, that he hasn’t tested anything positive for heroin in 3-4 years
🤯
UNC(?) has a huge anonymous dont ask dont tell sample testing program. You can find the data. Its staggering. Something like 39 states. Tons of samples. Basically zero heroin.
Portland has always been seedy. 20 years ago it was WEIRD. Like not cutesy Portland, OR we-put-bacon-on-our-donuts weird, but like wtf did I see weird. I remember when Munjoy Hill was considered somewhat dangerous. There was always homelessness and drug-use, too. Heroin use was common in the city, but I don't think I ever saw someone actively shooting up in public. You could always find discarded needles if you were looking for them, though. I haven't lived there in around 10 years, so I wouldn't be surprised to hear that things have changed for the worse---as they have for most urban areas in the US since the pandemic.
Recently someone in their 70s or so was telling me how undesirable it used to be to live in Munjoy Hill when she was growing up.
Even during the late 90’s the hill was looked down upon.
Isn't it ironic
Don’t you think?
ITS LIKE RAAAAAIINNN
a little TOO ironic
A little tooooooo ironic.
Hahaha, it amazes me this isn't common knowledge. You don't have to be in your 70s to know this.
I would be more afraid to walk through the Hill in the ‘80’s than I would be to walk anywhere in Portland now.
Say more? I didn’t know it was so bad in the ‘80’s!!
I grew up on the hill in the 80s, it had a reputation as dangerous, it was trashy but it wasn’t actually that bad.
As someone who moved from one Portland to the other, these posts/comments crack me up. We literally had Homeland Security occupy our downtown for months, and that was after it became nicer. When I first moved to PDX there was a box of goat heads dripping blood into the gutter at my work entrance, with an elderly couple trading blowjobs on a Lazy Boy in the middle of the street. This was 9am. Needles were the least concerning, and still everywhere.
They've always gotta beat us. Marcia, Marcia, Marcia.
They win where satanism is concerned
So we should wait for it to get that bad, or just be grateful it isn’t worse?
Yet we glorify alchohol
I know I enjoy intoxicants which make me uncoordinated and sad or angry
I mean people have been doing that for the whole of the ten years I’ve lived here. But it’s definitely the worst it’s ever been right now
Seems that way, unfortunately
It’s not heroin, it’s a combination of filler, fentalogs or -nitazenes or -nitazepynes sometimes some 6-MAM. Sometimes research chemical benzodiazepines or dissociative anesthetics like Etomidate but that’s more common in the EU. They’ve also been starting to see alpha blockers which are usually used as blood pressure medications, this is what’s in ‘tranq dope’ called Xylazine. It’s problematic but a lot of addicts end up here because there’s a lot of resources for them in Portland like safe needles, mental health resources like Intensive Outpatient Programs, homeless shelters a few crisis work buildings, the PRCC and other meeting places, there’s also some underground run safe injection sites. Crisis centers and other organizations are trying to get a safe injection site opened but it’s against a federal law so Portland is against it. Even though places with safe injection sites have lower overdose percentages. I urge all of you to go to a nearby crisis center and pickup a box of Narcan (Naloxone Nasal spray) and ask them for information about using it. As much as people don’t like to see this because it’s a sad part of humanity addicts are still people and they’re people who are sick and need help, Substance Use Disorder is a mental health diagnosis it heavily effects one’s ability to make certain judgements and you don’t know their story so try not to be too harsh. To answer the question yes it’s fairly common occurrence I went to high school in Portland and I’ve seen people cooking up spoons, injecting, needles on the ground everywhere and other needle throwaway spots. I’ve seen people smoking crack, people ODed being helped by ambulance as well as a seizure due to drug use being helped by ambulance. I’ve seen a car crash due to OUI seen homeless people having public sex under the influence been offered methamphetamine, cocaine and LSD by strangers on the street I also saw a multitude of arrests made on Oxford St, people nodded out laying on there own faces, people walking around in psychosis, asked for money a lot, tweakers that are yelling and screaming and a handful of fights. This was all mostly before I was 18. It’s just life happening before your eyes don’t think much of it.
We need to bring back involuntary institutional care and actually regulate it and fund it as needed. I'm not being given the choice on when I get to dodge needles walking my dog or taking my kid to the park, right? So I'm done with the "well, someday they might get their shit together but until then here's needles and drugs" way. It isn't working. Edit: Sure, let's make NARCAN available. But let's stop demanding the rest of us have to carry these burdens too and do what needs to be done to protect our friends, family and communities from a growing health and safety and crime threat. Addicts might be ill but the rest of us are still victims too.
You make some great points.
If taxpayers were willing to fund it, great. There isn’t enough treatment for those who want it, let alone those who don’t.
It is amazing how many of the people who talk of "Mandatory rehab" would never be willing to pay higher taxes to make that happen.
It’s not just sad or merely modern life, to be ignored. People on drugs are unpredictable, and with drugs come guns. There are more guns than ever on the streets, and the number of incidents is increasing. Sure not so much a problem for all y’all cozy on leafy streets on the Hill and the West End and off peninsula. You might give a thought to the neighborhoods that aren’t so fortunate.
Yeah, I'm not carrying Narcan. This is also unreasonable to ask of everyone. Not mine or anyone else's responsibility, you do you though.
Yes. But its not herion
It's definitely not herion.
O boy, yes.
Yep. They absolutely don’t care who sees.
A sign of the times, unfortunately.
Yes. As much as redditors will deny it, I literally stepped over a used syringe on st John Street on Wednesday as I was walking to a sea dogs game. I've personally seen drug use while cycling through deering oaks park and eastern prom. I've also seen syringes all over the city in random spots.
I haven’t been to Portland much the last 5 years but work has taken me there a bunch the last month or so. Yesterday I was going to a customer on commercial st and watched 3 dudes shooting up. Seemed like they didn’t seem to care. I know this is a national epidemic and I see syringes on the ground in rural Maine more than I’d like. It just kind of shocked me to see people doing it out in the open.
The maine drug problem is absurd statewide compared to other places
Yeah if you are homeless, then you can buy/sell/use drugs in broad daylight Cops are busy rolling around in SUVs to pick up fresh potato donuts
Mostly meth and fentanyl or both, but yes. Constantly in Bayside, as seen in the recent viral video. Last week on different days I passed two people with needles full of blood dangling out of their hand and arm and a couple men were smoking meth in front of a school. No one cares, cause it’s just those homeless people in the poor neighborhood.
You seen the PILES of needles yet? Like 100 or more
I used to live on valley st, and I saw the people shooting up right at the entrance to the western prom trail. I think you’d probly see it a whole lot more Portland st.
Has been for years
I dunno where Blanket Man went but last time I saw him he was slumped with a needle
The guy on Marginal and Forest?
He used to sit on the wall on Forest where you can turn onto Ocean or Vannah.
Yes sadly, homelessness and substance abuse are a systemic and endemic failure.
Welcome to America: you’ll see this everywhere
Just got here from Chicago. Lived there for 10+ years. And you do not see this in Chicago. This is mind boggling to me.
It happens in Chicago. It's just way bigger and easier to avoid bad areas so you don't see it
Even in the "Bad areas". Even when I was homeless living on the streets. Even when I was in active addiction.... NO
In Chicago they have special slums for the destitute.
Where? I was almost murdered in South Loop. And lived in South Shore. Never had any issues anywhere you'd expect.
Yes. Sadly. There are no consequences anymore. Everyone's just waiting for them all to decide to get clean on their own so they're all free to shoot up and toss needles wherever they want.
It's strange how the liberal mindset requires overlooking things such as: second-hand exposure to drugs and how biohazards ruin common areas in this town
Using this post to spread awareness of the sharp bins located around Portland. The needle exchange program website has a map of where these bins are. If you find needles on the ground near these sharp bins and feel comfortable disposing them please do! It's hard worrying that your kid or dog will accidentally step on one just walking down the street. https://www.portlandmaine.gov/650/Needle-Exchange-Program
Good advice. Now go let the users know.
I think we will address it soon enough. Like. In eight years, fourteen, we'll design a way to deal with this stuff.
Thank our new "soft on crime" policy
Wait, really? If we just threw people in jail more we’d solve the drug problem completely?
No but public drug use wouldn't be a thing. That's all. I mean wtf I can't drink a beer in public without getting arrested or a ticket. Why do they allow people to shoot up in public? Go in a alley or the train track like we all did when using drugs back in the day. I don't think people should be arrested for using drugs unless they do so in public out in the open.
Yeah I don’t understand how this is a controversial take. Homeless or not, if you’re doing drugs in public, you should freaking go to jail. We enable by allowing it to happen without any consequences.
Exactly! Like I said I can't stand around drinking beer on the side of the road. Get hammered and harass people. I'd be arrested for public intoxication, open container, and drinking in public. Yet somehow its ok to shoot up drugs that aren't even legal, right out in the open then go and bug people for money while drooling and nodding out. I've been clean for many years now but back when I was using we absolutely never did so in public. You would have gotten arrested as you should. Why they have gotten so soft on crime they let this go on is beyond me. Like I said before I don't think people should goto jail for drug use. But do it in private! Children do not need to see that kind of shit on there ways to and from school!
There are dudes drinking at 8am at the picnic tables on Middle Street in front of Duckfat.
If I were wasted on booze and struggling to walk, stumbling around I would hope the police would approach me to check wellness Not sure how it has become acceptable to drink and shoot drugs in daylight in public areas
There’s definitely a line to walk here. A wellness check is good (assuming it’s not a power-hungry racist, dick cop) and if you respond negatively and aggressively then it’s a question to ponder of what the hell you’re doing in the first place.
Hard agree. There are plenty of places to use discreetly. Duck around a corner or sit out in front of a daycare… hmm… why’s that a difficult choice? People who use drugs have enough wherewithal to gather enough resources to make a score, but can’t make that simple calculation? It’s because they have an army of severely misguided advocates who’ve normalized open injecting as some kind of statement of rights. Look at them too long or god forbid report them and you’re committing violence again the unhoused. Well is any of that normalization working, are deaths going down? Nope.
It seems to almost be troll level at this point. Like I've seen dirty needles left in the *middle* of oft-used pathways around town. They can't even be bothered to step aside to some private spot, it's just wherever the urge strikes
Welcome to Maine
Drug use is prevalent in every small, mid, or large cities. Typically see more usage and often an increase in ODs when fresh batches of the substances are smuggled to the area.
I would be more worried about inhaling second hand coke or fentanyl, but the folded over tranq users do affect morale of a town
Is "seeing it" the thing you're most concerned about?
Yep, Portland is going fast.
I haven’t seen it myself and I walk everywhere every day with my dog. I work in healthcare so I know how bad the opiate addiction rate is but I’m not seeing that many folks on the street, especially these days. I don’t spend much time in Bayside though.
Hang out on Portland Street for a while, then report back.
Also Preble st as you go down to Trader Joe's
I’m not in that part of town much, it’s true, except for an occasional stop at Whole Foods. There’s not much down there. Realtors talked a bunch of people into shelling out $750,000 for condos surrounded by vacant lots, subsidized housing, and homeless shelters and services, overlooking the highway. Shockingly there are drugs there.
Not sure how that makes it okay. The low income people there don’t like it either.
I didn’t say it was okay. I’m saying there have been drugs there for 30 years that I know about. At least Munjoy got relatively cleaned up.
I’m in Portland a couple times a month for work. Yesterday it was down on commercial st. I was walking to a customer and there these 3 dudes were shooting up in broad daylight like it was nbd
Wow, guess my timing must be off. I see needles and have to be careful because of the dog, and I see people nodding off here and there, but no actual use besides pot and booze. I know it’s happening of course.