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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 18, 2009)
i “ dec “Jo?8 roots STUDENTS RIDE FOR SEX TRADE VICTIMS And so can you!' Page 3 org Education * Dialogue ♦ Independence P H O T O B Y .K E N H A W K IN S A single hit ò f heroin on paper, in the hands of an addict, before it is cooked and injected. Observers w heroin use is reaching levels unmatched in Portland since it’s heyday in 1999. Return of the dragon Heroin reemerges as one o f Portland’s most seductive and dangerous addictions you have one eye scanning so you don’t get caught and ' hemmed up,” he says-as he walks down the Street.. Stopping-atanintersection, Joe looks around. “I think n a sunny Monday during the early afternoon,-a we’re good,” he says. He walks down along a hill 27-year old homeless man only wanting to be overlooking another part of 1405. Tucking himself in . identified as “Joe” for 'this story walks down a hill overlooking 1405 and sits on a piece of, cardboard laid out between two bushes and setting his backpack next to him, he takes out a needle from a Ziploc bag of 10 he.recieved at among, bushes, empty bottles and litter. The sounds of cars Outside In’s Syringe Exchange Clinic. Holding it in one and buses are all'around. Joe takes out a blue bag, unzips it, hand, he takes the tin cup out of his backpack and puts the and takes out a fwisted-up piece of white wax paper. Inside heroin in it. He also takes out a small water bottle, puts it the paper is an almost imperceptible amount of a gooey, dark brown substance. Joe says it’s a couple dollars worth of on the" ground, and puts a red lighter on his leg. Pulling the syringe with his mouth, he pulls water out of black tar heroin. ■ | the bottle and shoots it; into the tin cup. Holding the cup “I treat ibis like a medicine,” Joe says» ‘‘Oh shit, a cop just with a twisted bread tie, he heats it for about 20seconds wént down the street.” He quickly gets up to move. with the lighter. “You’re focusing on doing something pretty intricate and BY A M ANDA WALDROUPE C O N T R IB U T IN G W R IT E R ; a With the syringe’s plunger, Joe mixes the liquid. Licking the end of the plunger, he sucks the heroin into the syringe. ... “She didn’t give me a tourniquet,” he says, looking through the Ziploc bag. He takes offbis belt and wraps.it tightly around his bicep. His veins’begin to pop out, ahd faintly lining his arm are th e scabs and scars from previous injections. Slowly, he inserts the needle, his fist clenched. But he doesn’t inject. Instead, he moves the needle left to right inside his arm, looking for and missing the much-sought- after vein. Murmuring to hitnself in pain, he pulls the ! needle out. A small bead of dark blood follows. See Dragon, page 12 Homelessness poses special challenges for H1N1 preparations _______ Providers watch closely as flu season takes shape _ ..... S N 1 O M M E ZUHL S T A F F W R IT E R lu season, and perhaps a particularly nasty ? one, is on the horizon for everyone. On the streets, it looms like a pall. The. network of homeless providers face challenges unlike those for the housed populations, and with the H1N1 (formerly called the Swine Flu) vaccine still weeks away from being delivered to the public, and still then prioritized for distribution, questions remain as to how an outbreak would be managed at the street level . How would a serious outbreak play out in the shelter system, with its dormitories of mats and cots, or the clinics that are working under heavy loads with a vulnerable population, or simply the ■ and and emergency emergency personnel. personnel. It It would would also also notably notably realities of another rainy season outdoors? include people with high-risk health conditions. For the answers to those questions, all eyes “Homeless people as such are not identified as a seem to look to the county. , priority group,” Oxman says. “But there are “There are couple of realities we’re going to significant numbers of homeless people who would face, particularly for those who utilize shelters,”; fall into that priority group: youths; as would larger says Gary Oxman, health officer for Multnomah, number with chronic illnesses, asthma, chronic Clackamas and Washington counties. “There’s a lung disease, liver, Hepatitis C. We’re hopeful to danger there of transmission of disease in those move as rapidly as we can to the homeless. It’s a settings. Obviously, vaccination is a part of that question of how much vaccine we get and how fast strategy.” we get i t ” Oxman said they anticipate receiving the H1N1 The availability of the vaccination is still a few vaccine in the coming weeks, and it will be weeks away, coinciding with what some projections administered to those priority groups identified by put at the peak of a possible H1N1 outbreak. But the CDC and adopted by the state. Those priorities are for pregnant women, C a a H 1N 1. n a a e 6 children and their caregivers, health care workers
