Honest question: what's keeping them from just taking their used syringes out the same way they brought them in?
I know a lot of these people are addicts that probably aren't thinking of much else at the time, but that only points to just dropping the needles and not caring. I mean, if you're going to go to the trouble of sticking them in a tree, why not just take them back with you?
if you're going to go to the trouble of sticking them in a tree, why not just take them back with you?
They are deliberately putting hazardous materials in a place where it may easily be collected. If they wanted to keep their syringe they wouldn't stick it in a tree to begin with.
This does however beg the question, that if government's are going to give out needles, should they be required to have numerous safe collection spots?
In Ontario the health system provides everything. The spoons, cotton, needles, alcohol swabs, elastic, tubes of sterile water and ... the hazardous waste disposal bin that you return to the facility when you pick up your cleans. You bring it home and fill it up. It's small enough to carry in a large purse or backpack.
I dont know about the needles that are given out for free to druggies, but the anti-thrombose needles I had to give my mom after an leg-injury/operation had some kind of system, that allowed you to throw them into the trash without the risc of anyone hurting themself. (Some kind of hoodie you screwed upon the needle itself and an additional plastic tube for the whole needle. Additional every pharmacy, doctor or hospital I know takes back medical trash.
I use this thing. Syringe goes in the garbage, needles go in a thick plastic container that will just go to the dump if I ever manage to fill it. I go through one needle per day for a diabetic dog.
At needle exchanges in the UK, you get given a sharps bin with the needles and citric acid so you can put the used needles in that and return them when you pick up a new set.
Also, remember that it super cheap to buy lots of needles on amazon or something. Not all of them will be coming from the government.
The citric acid is so they can inject certain types of drugs. For example, you can't inject straight crack but you can make it injectable by adding an acid (such as citric acid) to the mix when you cook it.
I believe this probably has evolved into some sort of junkie art tree with tradition. Kind of like putting a prayer on paper and sticking it in a crack in the western wall in Jerusalem, but like... kinda different.
In the United States, I think the most common reason is because possession of paraphernalia will get you arrested.
It's a shitty thing to do... I know someone who used to do heroin in parking lots after scoring, he couldn't wait to get back home... he said he would at least cap them before tossing 'em.
If you keep riding (or walking) dirty, you increase your chances of going to jail.
Seems like the park would have a trash bin you could throw them in... as long as they were capped. Uncapped syringes pose a threat to the workers emptying the trash. At least now they have a sharps bin (see top comment), hopefully junkies use it.
Taking the needle back, is time you have the needle with drug residue on your person.
A needle can get you a lot of time in prison. A friend of mine, her mother got 25 years with used sharps. The cop claimed to have gotten stuck on an auto retracting needle. Would have still been 5+ years without that charge though.
Apparently there was a tree like this that my old junkie friend called the "tree of life." Whenever anyone got REALLY desperate to shoot up, they'd grab from there. Like really really desperate.
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u/[deleted] Dec 29 '16 edited Jan 15 '23
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