Street roots., September 18, 2009, Page 12, Image 12

C E L E B B A T IN G M D E C A D E V I
12
street ro o tslIB
Education * Dialogue * Independence
DRAGON, from page 11
“Maybe there’s something wrong with
this needle,” Joe says. “I’m just used to
having the tourniquet.”
Swiping the blood onto his fingertip, he
licked it off. Every time Joe saw a drop of
blood as he poked his arm three more
times, he’d lick—not to miss a single grain of
heroin.
On the fourth injection, Joe stopped
moving the needle. Holding it still for a
moment, he slowly pushed the plunger with
one finger, staring at the point of. entry the
entire time, watching until every drop of
light amber fluid disappeared into his arm.
He loosens the belt before Ke lets the
needle out. Blood trails down his arm.
Wiping his arms with his hands, he licks his
fingers. •
\ .
“Sometimes it turns into a bloody mess
and you’re just trying to get your fix,” he
says as he uses an alcoholic wipe given to
him at the needle exchange clinic operated
by Outside In.
Joe says he does not feel that much
different after taking the heroin. “This is
even for me,” he says, not describing the
high any further. -
On Jiis way up the embankment, J'oe stops
to talk to a panhandler sitting at the comer.
Crossing the 1-5 bridge back to downtown,
he quickly walks in the direction of a surplus
store, his gait almost gliding.
Joe says he will probably shoot up in
another four to six hours.
year, says Mary Wheat, the police bureau’s
public information officer. Wheat says that
the Portland police are making arrests for
heroin possession every day.
Nationally, the number qf heroin users is
rising. According to the 2008 National
Survey on Drug Use and Health, published,
by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration (SAMHSA), the
Joe, who, as he looked for a place to shoot
up, spoke about using his engineering skills
to build hybrid bicycles and other Vehicles
with little environmental impact, that
accessibility has destroyed his obvious
potential and become a “medicine,” even as
it creates physical and mental pain
whenever he tries to quit
A growing trend
Dennis Lundberg and Mike Reese rarely
see eye to eye. But recently, the outreach
worker for the homeless youths organization
Janus Youth and the commander of the
Portland Police Bureau’s central precinct
h aV ^ fpnr^d. rQ T n m n n g r o u n d n n a u n lik e ly
topic: the rise of heroin use in Portland.
Heroin use, Lundberg and Reese say, |
ebbs, and flows in Portland with the seasons.
Summertime .is when the presence of the
drug reaches it peak, coinciding with the
presence of a seasonal homeless population
frequenting downtown. As the weather cools
and dampens, the amount of heroin declines
as some youths leave town.
Last summer, the trend predictably
played itself out, but Lundberg and Reese
were taken by surprise when they saw how
much heroin was present in Portland.
“We saw a remarkable increase last
summer,” Lundberg says.
Unexpectedly, heroin use did not drop off
in the fall, as it normally did. “This year it’s
even worse,” Reese saysi
The number of arrests for herein
possession has risen. In 2008, there 467
arrests, a slight increase from 2007’s 464
arrests. This year, however, the number of
arrests for heroin possession has already
reached 408j a 25 percerit increase from last
.
'
.
P H O T O B Y K E N H A W K IN S
Joe, who d id n ’t w ant his real nam e used, shoots up heroin in the bushes by Interstate 5. H e
says the h it is not even to get q high anymore, but to avoid feeling sick from withdrawal. -
number of current heroin users in the
United States increased from 153,000
people in 2007 to 213,000 in 2008. , ..
The rise of heroin use on Portland’s
streets is due to its almost rampant
availability and affordability. For people like
Sisters Of The Road’s Hoedown & Auction
Friday, Oct. 23
6-10 p.m.
Portland Art
Museum’s Kridel
Grand Ballroom
Hoedown is our biggest fundraiser of the year, and this year it’s going to
be an extra special affair honoring all the great work Sisters has done in
2009 and celebrating our 30th birthday!
Bring your partner and be ready to twirl to the fabu,ous*muSic of Uncle
Earl and Casey Neill & The Norway Rats at the Hoedown square dance!
To purchase your tickets to this amazing event, go to www.sistersoftheroad.org or call
Monica Beemer at 503-222-5694 ext. 19
Tickets are $85; tables of ten are $850; and limited patron tables are available for $T,300.
Tar junkies of all ages
The most marked increase in heroin use,
according to local agencies, is among
youths. Marc Lejeune, the manager of
Outside In’s Needle Exchange Clinic, says
the number of people the clinic is serving
between the ages of 19 and 24 has increased
by 35 percent In 2009, 20 percent of the
clients served by the Multnomah County
Health Department’s four needle exchange
clinics were 18 to 24, a 13 percent increase ,
during the past four years.
While the number of people accessing the
county’s needle exchange clinics has steadily
increased, Graham Harriman, the manager
of the STD/HIV/Hep C Program at the
Multnomah County Health Department
says “the increase that we’re seeing is
. primarily among youths.”
“It seems a little more chic or trendy for
kids to dabble in it,” says Officer Mike &
Jones^a narcotics investigator with the
Portland Police Bureau’s Drugs and Vice
Division.
Lejeune says that the clinic has seen a
“substantial” increase in the number of
,
visits and needles given out. In it’s fiscal
year 2008/09, Outside In’s clinic had 25,000
duplicated visits and issued 533,000
syringes. So far this year, the clinic has had
. 30,000 visits.
Lejeune says tile clinic normally receives
a minimum of 2,000 visits a month. During
one month last year, it had 2,700. “We’ve
never seen [that] before,” Lejeune says.
“We saw those numbers every month last
year.”
This year, the county’s needle exchange
clinic has had 4,079 duplicated visits. Last
year, it handed out 572,000 syringes. Taken
together, Outside In’s and the county’s
needle exchange program issued a total of
1,105,000 needles in 2008. That is
approximately two needles for every person
living in Portland.
“This could be an indication that people
are more effectively accessing harm
reduction services,” Harriman says. “It’s not
a gpod indication that there’s more use.”
Advocates and consumers say the boon of
exchange clinics is not that they enable drug
use, but that they reduce needle sharing,
which can cause HIV and Hepatitis Cz
infection. John Duke, Outside In’s Clinic
Director, says that needle exchange
programs also are, many times, the first
. point of entry to services for people with
addictions.
,
“Syringe exchange programs catch people
when they are concerned about their
health,” Duke says.
, It may be the case that youths are being
introduced to heroin at an earlier age than
when Joe was first exposed to drugs. A man
walking out of Outside In’s Clinic who
identified himself as Jason said that he
would have taken the time to be interviewed
by Street Roots, but he “had to find five
bucks.” As he walked down the street
towards the Park Blocks, he yelled back,
“I’ve been doing [heroin for] eight years and
now there’s like fuck -14-year-olds doing
it”
SEE DRAGON, page 12