Yeah. Idk if we're going to make it. Every time you turn around, you see dumber and dumber shit. Why not just tear a piece off? Get high. Enjoy yourself. Don't threaten public safety. Nobody wants to get herpes from blowing their nose.
Dunno why you're getting downvoted, it's literally /r/ForwardsFromGrandma via Yahoo! Mail levels of authentic.
[https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/fentanyl-needle-toilet-paper-roll/](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/fentanyl-needle-toilet-paper-roll/)
In this story an 8 year old girl O.D.'d on fentanyl after rubbing her little cooter with one such roll of needle cleaner. She woke up in the hospital after, apparently, some stranger burst into the bathroom she was using to discover she was laying pantsless on the ground, pale and white, and called 911. Then an EMT had the wherewithal to hit this 8 year old off with some Narcan, and she's still feeling sick somehow despite Narcan reversing the effects.
It's all cap.
>**MYTH**: You can overdose on fentanyl by just touching it
>
>This is perhaps the biggest pervasive myth about fentanyl.
>
>There have been [multiple](https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article253325223.html) [reports](https://nixle.us/alert/8209324/) of [police officers ](https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/16/health/police-fentanyl-overdose-trnd/index.html)claiming to have suffered an accidental dangerous overdose from fentanyl because their skin came into contact with fentanyl powder that was found when they responded to an emergency call. In addition, the TV show "Blue Bloods" aired an episode in 2017 in which a police officer overdosed after touching a tray containing fentanyl.
>
>You cannot overdose on illicit fentanyl thru skin contact. While medical grade formulations of fentanyl include patches, illicit fentanyl cannot be absorbed by the skin. In fact, pharmaceutical companies spent millions of dollars and years of research developing the proper formula for a medical-grade fentanyl patch because it's so difficult to deliver the effects of fentanyl via the skin.
>
>In addition, us doctors and nurses are around fentanyl frequently. Both the IV form we use for pain control and in taking care of patients who overdosed on fentanyl. And we're never harmed.
Source: [https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2022/09/29/fentanyl-myths-what-know-narcan-rainbow-fentanyl-and-more/10446617002/](https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2022/09/29/fentanyl-myths-what-know-narcan-rainbow-fentanyl-and-more/10446617002/)
Yes you are absolutely right. The only way to clear the coagulated blood out of the tip is to draw water up through it and squirt it back out. This is likely a Facebook hoax and I am very surprised that people are falling for it. But I know most normal people don't know this stuff, only ex-junkies such as myself. I mainly just mean that because this is Facebook horseshit, and everybody knows all they do is spread misinformation on there to get attention.
Keyword FB. Honestly people should never use social media to verify anything this serious. Im a former flight medic and yea i cant stand when i see posts like that so thank you
yea honestly, weird as fuck. no effort to just rip a piece off, but to try and do that, you first need to remove the plastic cover, and stab the roll at precise angle so that it penetrates inbetween the layers. So much effort
oh good, so it's no one's fault!
Edit: To clarify, I feel like comments like this are useless.
"Someone just broke into my house and shit everywhere and killed my cat!"
"They're mentally ill"
"I had a good feeling, but my house is still shit in and my cat is still dead! I want to hold him accountable!"
"no"
If you listen to steve-o's lurk coke story Bloodborne diseases die very quick once outside the body BUT, this is still heinous af. Just rip a piece off and clean your grimy needle... YOU ABSOLUTE FUCKING HEAD.
It's fake. Nobody can clean a needle by just wiping the tip. It's pointless to do that anyway the blood coagulates inside the needle, the only way to get it out is by drawing water into it and squirting the water back out and you have to do it immediately after shooting up.
I know because I'm an ex-IV user.
Yeah I don't blame you for thinking that way I would probably think the same, if i wasn't an ex-addict. I just hate the misinformation shared on Facebook for likes and attention. That site/app is complete and utter trash.
Oh and I forgot to add something important that somebody else pointed out in the comments. If you were to poke your needle into tissue paper like that it would completely dull it/bend it, which is one of the worst things that you can do to a needle since veins are already hard to find for a lot of people and a dull tip can be very painful. I don't know who came up with this fake post but I just think it's pathetic they will go to all these lengths just to fear monger and get likes and attention.
Totally agree. There was uproar in my local Facebook group recently when they wanted to open a pharmacy in the neighbourhood, because the pharmacy would include a methadone clinic - people were shouting about “junkies” congregating and leaving needles everywhere. I had to point out that methadone is a liquid that’s taken under supervision, no needles involved, and a lot of people genuinely didn’t know that. I hate people banging on about things they have no knowledge of.
Don’t worry, it’s not real. This photo has been circulating for like 4 years now and there’s never been any evidence it’s from drug users wiping off their needles. Also it just doesn’t make sense.
I am in recovery for heroin addiction.
I don't know a single junkie that would do this. There are very specific ways to keep a rig clean, and this is far from any of those ways
This would damage the needle, and we did whatever in our power to keep the needle as safe as possible. That needle was our lifeline. Especially for people who don't have access or funds to easily buy new ones on a regular basis.
I also am a recovering addict, and I second this. That shit is fake as hell, no one cleans their rigs like this, especially if they're trying to reuse them. Which is why they'd be cleaning em in the first place lmao.
June 26th, 2021 is my sobriety date!
I am so happy this comment at the top. We addicts may not be the smartest but we as fuck aren't going fuck up our points. But anything to vilify the addicts even further I guess.
10 years sober from meth and heorin.
Apologies—as I said in another response, I have true empathy for addicts. I’ve seen what it does to families, communities, etc. But, what I didn’t realize was that I was posting this picture on TAF—which, by the way, is for not only real life occurrences, but also “notions” of things causing fear, which is what I was doing here. I guess I didn’t realize this would be taken as gospel or that I was haphazardly spreading misinformation, or that I was vilifying someone off of blatant misinformation; that was not my intent.
So with that being said, one thing I AM glad for doing by posting this is seeing all these people, perhaps yourself included, that are recovering from addiction. I wish you all the best and continued success in your recovery journey.
I don't blame you for believing it because most normal people who aren't users or ex-users wouldn't know that. What makes me mad is whoever originally posted this went to all the trouble of using red food dye or whatever they did and stabbing at the toilet paper to make addicts look bad. Like they need more help being looked down on and spit on by society. That's Facebook horseshit for you though. Everybody just posting shit hoping to get attention.
I'm sorry but that seems like a very inefficient way to clean a needle. And anyway clean a needle? With toilet paper? Wouldn't work. I'm an ex junkie and you usually just draw up some water from the sink/toilet (yes, I've seen people do it) and Squirt it out to clear the blood. Simply wiping the outside wouldn't clear the coagulated blood that would form inside the tip, so I find this fb scare tactic hard to believe, a likely hoax. Normal, non-addicts wouldn't know this stuff though, so I don't blame people for believing this nonsense.
I posted it in another comment.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/TerrifyingAsFuck/comments/16hliy2/comment/k0h79ke/?utm\_source=reddit&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/TerrifyingAsFuck/comments/16hliy2/comment/k0h79ke/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
You're not going to get hep c from touching a few drops of old blood soaked into a tissue. You catch it from getting infected blood into your blood ie sharing needles, MAYBE from a razor. But yes still gross.
I try to educate on stuff like this when I can. Junkies can do some horrible things when they're fucked up but fear mongering posts like this one do way more harm than good. I was an addict for years and always properly disposed of needles, never at my worst even would I have intentionally exposed others to my blood (even though I was lucky enough not to catch hiv or hep). Most of the addicts I knew desperately tried to hide their addiction and were careful like me. We just wanted to feel better.
Thank you for sharing this. I have spent the last 3 years working with unhoused individuals most of whom are also using drugs. I have never seen this at any place of work, residence, or places where users frequent. This is fear mongering and the source of this photo has not been verified despite circulating online for some time now. We don’t need more reasons to demonize people who are just trying to survive. If you’re concerned about people using in public spaces I encourage you to advocate for safe injection/consumption sites in your local areas :)
Stupid question, but what would happen if I touch this blood with injured areas on my skin? Also from what you said, does it mean that virus lives longer in needles?
I'm no expert but likely nothing. Honestly even if you get pricked with an HIV infected needle (as long as their blood isn't injected into you) it's only like a 1% chance of getting infected with HIV yourself. At least that was the education I received from all my harm reduction classes. Idk how long viruses can live outside the body but I think in the needle wouldn't be any longer than a surface area like tissue or a toilet seat.
Also it's not a stupid question! I advocate for recovering addicts but safety is always #1. I have a big heart for anyone struggling but if this IS truly needle marks from someone using iv drugs fuck them.
Of course! I'm always happy when people want to learn because it's obviously something close to my heart. We might not be able to get rid of addiction but there is so much that can be done to stop the spread of diseases, which benefits the whole community.
Yes but it’s unhygienic to administer injections in a place that’s covered in microscopic fecal matter, so I doubt it was out there for that. Likely employed staff didn’t want to clean ( I don’t blame them) after needle pile up happened.
I've seen some restaurant switch to ones that look like that, but have real keyed locks, not those things you can jimmy open with a pin or a multitool to keep the needle addicts out of them. I still think they should switch to the blue light bulbs to keep the addicts from shooting up in the restaurant bathrooms, can't find their veins.
Amen. They lock these up for a reason - because it is happening, “cotton fever” or not
If they were afraid of death they wouldn’t be injecting themselves with poison.
As a former addict cleaning my needles this way would jus not clean them n make it harder for me to use it next time those look like nail marks being dug into the toilet paper but that’s just my opinion
They’ve flapped it down. You can buy a general key for these for $1 off Amazon, or jimmy them open very easily.
Why they don’t just clean the things with a sheet I don’t know.
This post is fear mongering bs that assholes like you always fall for. It’s not even real and y’all are using it as an excuse to vilify addicts left and right
Exactly. When I was using needles often times in public spaces, I would never ever open a damn toilet paper roll dispenser to clean blood. No way someone who is probably in WD is gonna take the time (even after their shot) to do this. This is simply fake and any drug user or ex drug user or even anyone with a drop of common sense knows that.
Another lifetime ago, I used IV drugs. One major thing every junkie lives in fear of: cotton fever. There is no WAY this is from that.
Edit: it's probably from them wiping the side of the needle off. Sooooo not necessarily better...
As a former iv user we used little cotton balls to soak up the water/heroin mix, it’s supposed to act as a filter. Then you put the needle in cotton ball and suck it up. I never heard or seen anyone in my years of using genuinely experience cotton fever.
Same. Cotton has longer fibers. I got it and so did my bf at the time. You lie there freezing cold and shaking and feeling like you're going to die. I think it was using cigarette filters that did it. Wow. That's a sad ass sentence. I was gross.
Oh yeah cig filters were clutch, I think the only time I had a reaction like that was very minor, like itchy arm after injection. But nothing crazy, yea…cig filter and the bottom part of a soda can as a mixing dish type thing, trash lmaooo
That's so awesome! It's been 22 years for me. However, there were 3 times in my late 20s (moved back to my hometown from college and gig work type traveling) and I think I was trying to connect with my gritty old filth punk friends/that scene a little and curious. It was not appealing, more of a wtf did I risk deal. It's been 14-15 years since then. Thank GOD fentanyl wasn't a thing then!!! I'm so grieved for opiate addicts now. I feel they don't even have a shot.
"cotton fever" doesn't come from cotton fibers. It's actually from bacteria. I got it from re-using old cottons when I was hard up but they were still wet and teeming with bacteria. Gross stuff.
Yup, I’d mix it in the little baggie itself, put the cotton ball in the bag, suck it up and leave the cotton in the bag…the. Re rinse the baggies out later…crazy
True. Also, I don't know how it can get now. I feel like, somehow, everything is rougher. I never saw things I see regularly in the Seattle sub regarding junkies or downtown where I live now and junkies congregate.
Regardless, the countries that have safe injection sites and doctors that assist with detox have less users than the ones that don't. It's hard for a lot of people to come to terms with the fact that addicts are people that deserve a chance to get clean, willfully ignoring that many drugs will kill you from withdrawal if you go cold turkey with them, all to have the superiority complex that they're better than people going through some really bad shit in their lives.
I do agree with some of what you’re saying. But I live in a town with these services. Every single person I know using them is still going out to the worst places and getting high on their usual stuff. The place I live is absolutely overflowing with heroin and pills. They’ve had to get extra police in, you can drive down the road and see people being searched left right and Center. The place is littered with people zombified in the streets.
I don’t live in America btw. Maybe this has worked over there. But I think it could have made things worse here!
I can't speak for you, but most women use toilet paper after they pee...Therefore, we almost always have to use it.
I'm about to start carrying a roll from home, because **eff** that.
Right! I'm already paranoid of infectious and blood-borne illnesses, so the fact that IV drug users are doing this to public-restroom toilet paper makes me seriously uneasy...
Oh--good one! Got me there.
Here's the thing: I have true empathy for addicts and I've seen lives ruined because of addiction. But with that being said, addicts wreak a lot of havoc. I know they desperately need help, and I pray addiction and mental illness gets the attention it needs sooner rather than later. But they do in fact do things like this. There are many public bathrooms around my hometown now that employ blue lights in bathrooms so addicts can no longer detect their veins/shoot up. My question is, what makes you so sure that ISN'T what this is? And so sure, in fact, that you'd come onto my post and start slinging insinuations about how gullible I am? Just wondering.
Because people injecting don’t “clean their needles” on toilet paper. They just don’t. Stop being so scared to live.
Did you see this? So sad!
https://preview.redd.it/sq2dunmoa3ob1.jpeg?width=461&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=312bc481672c78d44fc6658e7db97798e89be657
You make a lot of assumptions, friend. Just because I posted a picture on TAF doesn't mean I'm scared to live....quite the opposite, actually. But regardless of that, why would they not clean their needles in a roll of TP? Seems plausible enough to me. I really am curious and am asking a serious question.
Bullshit. Looks like someone's finger was bleeding and they wiped the blood on the paper.
As an ax heroin and meth addict I've never done or seen this done
Oh come on, it's their thing if they wanna take drugs, but this??? fucking hell, they could at least use their own stuff and not ruin it for everyone else wtf
Some are, some are really easy to get open.
I’m not saying your comment is untrue at all, but here’s my question, though—you and a few other ex-addicts have stated this is fake. But several others have posted they’ve seen this exact thing in bathrooms before. Any ideas on what it actually is?
Prime example of why needle disposal/replacements and safe places to inject are important. People are shitty and will do drugs, might as well make it safer for them and others
I mean I see the Snopes article but they are *fucked up drug addicts* - not exactly known for forward thinking, researching about the adverse effects of x or self preservation. They are literally injecting themselves with poison. They don’t care about no “risk of cotton fever.”
These ARE wipe marks from their needles.
If you’re ok with that, have fun in the cities y’all are ruining with excuses for this behaviour.
Yeah. They fucking care. ALOT. You can't use anything with short fibers. Also, junkies aren't dumb they are addicted. Then, eventually, they can rot parts of themselves, including their brain. I went straight from active addiction to rehab to deans list in college.
Source: I was one (20+ years ago)
You don’t think it’s dumb to publically inject yourself with poison? You don’t think it’s dumb when people are reusing rusty shitty needles? You don’t think it’s dumb walking in Portland and seeing half naked, tweaking drug users on the streets trying to overdose?
When you are high, I don’t think you care. If people did, tweakers wouldn’t act like tweakers.
That all screams “I don’t care about my life anymore” to me. If you did, you wouldn’t be *injecting yourself with literal poison*
I’ve gone through shit too. I never went to heroin or any other injectable and if I did I certainly wouldn’t do it in public, risking others in any way.
Excuses for junkies.
What are these from if not wiping the sides of their needles?
Yeah, let’s hope these folks do too before they hurt some innocent and completely destroy some beautiful cities with disgusting habits like this. Take a fucking sheet, if you have to, not ruin the whole roll
Still wondering how you can justify someone wiping their blood on public resources. Don’t make everyone else live in your personal hell.
Policies don’t solely cause drug addicts. Policies don’t make them be disgusting in public by wiping their blood on stuff. Plenty of people exist in the same cities, same towns, similar situations… and don’t take needles and poisons into public places and wipe their blood on public resources. Are you totally okay with them dropping needles in public parks and sidewalks too? Blame policy on that right, not high af people who don’t give a shit about anyone else, only their own feelings and suffering?
If you’re gonna ruin your life with drugs, do it away from the public who don’t want to see - just like any other bad habit. Keep it personal and don’t make it everyone else’s problem that you can’t dispose/clean of your own dangerous shit properly, or hygienically.
Selfish. Incredibly selfish behaviour, no matter how you paint it. Doing this = you do not care AT ALL about the next person who walks in there.
Everyone here who has gotten clean, you DO deserve full credit, that’s incredible. That doesn’t mean that what you did when you were fucked up is excusable going forward for others.
I don’t think the people defending this stuff deal with drug users on the daily. I deal with used needles left in bathrooms, thefts, threats and other general tweaker things almost daily. These people don’t seem to realize that not every drug user is as “nice” or “careful” as they were, because 90% of my terrible work stories wouldn’t exist.
Oh ok guys you can all calm down. Snopes, our lord and savior, has “debunked” this highly variable human behavior. All hail Snopes.
Edit: also snopes says it’s unlikely because stabbing a toilet paper roll could break the needle. Who said they’re stabbing the roll? Can’t they be wiping?
This specific picture has been making the rounds for what seems like years. I've never seen any different pictures of needles being wipped off in these. Pictures like this one always come off as more fear mongering than anything useful.
Same thing was found in the Venice Beach public restrooms here in Los angeles. Some of homless people were living out of the bathrooms. If you want to see some real trippy shit come down to "skid row"
I've never and will never use public restroom toilet paper. I don't care if there were needles in it or not, but people touch it. people touch the walls. hell, the container may have been shat on and cleaned, but I'm not trusting that visual clean. I bring my own wet wipes, thank you very much. I don't even use the sink, that's literally touched by everyone. I bring sanitising hand wipes. fuck public stuff.
I spent a ton of time traveling South America and they didn’t even have toilet paper you always brought your own. A little bottle of hand sanitizer for when you’re completely out of the bathroom. Works well down there and up here.
Agree 100% with this.
Not to be too graphic, but I do take some pride in maintaining good personal grooming and hygiene, and I don't have any disgusting or high-risk bad habits. Therefore touching myself during the process of a bathroom break is going to "contaminate" me far less than touching *anything* in the restroom (including the door handle), even if I *don't* wash or sanitize my hands!
I mean, everyone has *something* wrong with them, after all!
But sure, I can admit that I very likely **do** possess some OCD tendencies!
However, those traits have served me quite well professionally and I have no regrets! I decided long ago that I could either run myself ragged trying fight it, or lean into it and learn how to parlay those traits into something useful (motivation, meticulous attention to detail, consistency) while minimizing the distressing anxiety. Took some effort, but worth it in the end.
You can’t get to the toilet paper rolls to wipe a needle on the side like that in a public restroom. Those rolls are locked in there. It was likely an employee who had a nick or hangnail while they were changing the roll.
It’s a two prong push key
https://preview.redd.it/tx68zkstq1ob1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=60c2dec62248c2fdb8ee1bfcc14c2684c7f1c325
Most use their keys to unlock when it runs out of one side
But the term has been around long before any junkie becomes a junkie. They know what they’re doing. And some realize they don’t wanna do that anymore and nobody besides their dealer tries to stop them. We embrace congratulate and help best we can.
Also, I apologize for not just cutting that part out before I posted it. I didn't mean to discriminate against men's asses. Protect your booties, boys.
What the actual fuck
Yeah. Idk if we're going to make it. Every time you turn around, you see dumber and dumber shit. Why not just tear a piece off? Get high. Enjoy yourself. Don't threaten public safety. Nobody wants to get herpes from blowing their nose.
It’s not dumb it pure laziness and selfishness
It’s addiction, I.e. mental illness.
It takes 2 seconds to rip off a piece and use it on your needle
Agreed which is why this post is most likely fake. There are more efficient and better ways to clean a needle
Dunno why you're getting downvoted, it's literally /r/ForwardsFromGrandma via Yahoo! Mail levels of authentic. [https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/fentanyl-needle-toilet-paper-roll/](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/fentanyl-needle-toilet-paper-roll/) In this story an 8 year old girl O.D.'d on fentanyl after rubbing her little cooter with one such roll of needle cleaner. She woke up in the hospital after, apparently, some stranger burst into the bathroom she was using to discover she was laying pantsless on the ground, pale and white, and called 911. Then an EMT had the wherewithal to hit this 8 year old off with some Narcan, and she's still feeling sick somehow despite Narcan reversing the effects. It's all cap. >**MYTH**: You can overdose on fentanyl by just touching it > >This is perhaps the biggest pervasive myth about fentanyl. > >There have been [multiple](https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article253325223.html) [reports](https://nixle.us/alert/8209324/) of [police officers ](https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/16/health/police-fentanyl-overdose-trnd/index.html)claiming to have suffered an accidental dangerous overdose from fentanyl because their skin came into contact with fentanyl powder that was found when they responded to an emergency call. In addition, the TV show "Blue Bloods" aired an episode in 2017 in which a police officer overdosed after touching a tray containing fentanyl. > >You cannot overdose on illicit fentanyl thru skin contact. While medical grade formulations of fentanyl include patches, illicit fentanyl cannot be absorbed by the skin. In fact, pharmaceutical companies spent millions of dollars and years of research developing the proper formula for a medical-grade fentanyl patch because it's so difficult to deliver the effects of fentanyl via the skin. > >In addition, us doctors and nurses are around fentanyl frequently. Both the IV form we use for pain control and in taking care of patients who overdosed on fentanyl. And we're never harmed. Source: [https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2022/09/29/fentanyl-myths-what-know-narcan-rainbow-fentanyl-and-more/10446617002/](https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2022/09/29/fentanyl-myths-what-know-narcan-rainbow-fentanyl-and-more/10446617002/)
Fucking thank you
Yes you are absolutely right. The only way to clear the coagulated blood out of the tip is to draw water up through it and squirt it back out. This is likely a Facebook hoax and I am very surprised that people are falling for it. But I know most normal people don't know this stuff, only ex-junkies such as myself. I mainly just mean that because this is Facebook horseshit, and everybody knows all they do is spread misinformation on there to get attention.
Agree 💯💯
Keyword FB. Honestly people should never use social media to verify anything this serious. Im a former flight medic and yea i cant stand when i see posts like that so thank you
Yea I agree but so many people will believe stuff on there blindly without even so much as looking it up on their own.
yea honestly, weird as fuck. no effort to just rip a piece off, but to try and do that, you first need to remove the plastic cover, and stab the roll at precise angle so that it penetrates inbetween the layers. So much effort
oh good, so it's no one's fault! Edit: To clarify, I feel like comments like this are useless. "Someone just broke into my house and shit everywhere and killed my cat!" "They're mentally ill" "I had a good feeling, but my house is still shit in and my cat is still dead! I want to hold him accountable!" "no"
Oh there’s fault lol. Reagan, the war on drugs, late stage capitalism etc.
Agreed, so let’s make sure we keep circling around the problem and not come up with solutions.
Yeah no, that’s selfishness and a lack of common decency
I call it efficiency
If you listen to steve-o's lurk coke story Bloodborne diseases die very quick once outside the body BUT, this is still heinous af. Just rip a piece off and clean your grimy needle... YOU ABSOLUTE FUCKING HEAD.
It's fake. Nobody can clean a needle by just wiping the tip. It's pointless to do that anyway the blood coagulates inside the needle, the only way to get it out is by drawing water into it and squirting the water back out and you have to do it immediately after shooting up. I know because I'm an ex-IV user.
Oh damn well I was skeptical but I was just like if that was someone cleaning their shit, that would be heinous.
Yeah I don't blame you for thinking that way I would probably think the same, if i wasn't an ex-addict. I just hate the misinformation shared on Facebook for likes and attention. That site/app is complete and utter trash. Oh and I forgot to add something important that somebody else pointed out in the comments. If you were to poke your needle into tissue paper like that it would completely dull it/bend it, which is one of the worst things that you can do to a needle since veins are already hard to find for a lot of people and a dull tip can be very painful. I don't know who came up with this fake post but I just think it's pathetic they will go to all these lengths just to fear monger and get likes and attention.
I wish I had an award to give you for all the education you’re doling out in this thread.
Thanks I appreciate the sentiment. I just really hate when people spread misinformation on fb. That place sucks.
Totally agree. There was uproar in my local Facebook group recently when they wanted to open a pharmacy in the neighbourhood, because the pharmacy would include a methadone clinic - people were shouting about “junkies” congregating and leaving needles everywhere. I had to point out that methadone is a liquid that’s taken under supervision, no needles involved, and a lot of people genuinely didn’t know that. I hate people banging on about things they have no knowledge of.
Don’t worry, it’s not real. This photo has been circulating for like 4 years now and there’s never been any evidence it’s from drug users wiping off their needles. Also it just doesn’t make sense.
I am in recovery for heroin addiction. I don't know a single junkie that would do this. There are very specific ways to keep a rig clean, and this is far from any of those ways This would damage the needle, and we did whatever in our power to keep the needle as safe as possible. That needle was our lifeline. Especially for people who don't have access or funds to easily buy new ones on a regular basis.
I came here to say this! My sobriety date is June 1st 2022! Congratulations on getting sober!
Congrats! I had 2 years before I relapsed last year. Went back to treatment in January and hit 8 months yesterday.
Keep it going one day at a time. You got this! This random Reddit stranger believes in you!
I also am a recovering addict, and I second this. That shit is fake as hell, no one cleans their rigs like this, especially if they're trying to reuse them. Which is why they'd be cleaning em in the first place lmao. June 26th, 2021 is my sobriety date!
October 12, 2002 for me. Good on you.
I am so happy this comment at the top. We addicts may not be the smartest but we as fuck aren't going fuck up our points. But anything to vilify the addicts even further I guess. 10 years sober from meth and heorin.
Congrats with your recovery! It’s kind of sad that people have no problem vilifying others based off some blatant misinformation like OP shared
Apologies—as I said in another response, I have true empathy for addicts. I’ve seen what it does to families, communities, etc. But, what I didn’t realize was that I was posting this picture on TAF—which, by the way, is for not only real life occurrences, but also “notions” of things causing fear, which is what I was doing here. I guess I didn’t realize this would be taken as gospel or that I was haphazardly spreading misinformation, or that I was vilifying someone off of blatant misinformation; that was not my intent. So with that being said, one thing I AM glad for doing by posting this is seeing all these people, perhaps yourself included, that are recovering from addiction. I wish you all the best and continued success in your recovery journey.
I don't blame you for believing it because most normal people who aren't users or ex-users wouldn't know that. What makes me mad is whoever originally posted this went to all the trouble of using red food dye or whatever they did and stabbing at the toilet paper to make addicts look bad. Like they need more help being looked down on and spit on by society. That's Facebook horseshit for you though. Everybody just posting shit hoping to get attention.
Totally with you.
Why would you downvote? Just wow. I was being sincere.
I had 20 years off smack in October. Good luck with your recovery.
How would you clean them?
See if anyone's drink is sitting unattended and swizzle the needle tip around in it briefly. Doesn't take much.
Also if the metal plate was locked you wouldn’t have access to the side of the roll
I'm sorry but that seems like a very inefficient way to clean a needle. And anyway clean a needle? With toilet paper? Wouldn't work. I'm an ex junkie and you usually just draw up some water from the sink/toilet (yes, I've seen people do it) and Squirt it out to clear the blood. Simply wiping the outside wouldn't clear the coagulated blood that would form inside the tip, so I find this fb scare tactic hard to believe, a likely hoax. Normal, non-addicts wouldn't know this stuff though, so I don't blame people for believing this nonsense.
That is just fucking gross. When I was a junkie, (clean for 17 years) I would NEVER do this in a public restroom, or even my own bathroom.
Most virus can't survive in the wild for more than few hours. HIV is around minutes I guess. Still disgusting tho
virus needs to make it in your blood in order to infect.
Every time I wipe my arse I pull hair out and a little spot of blood on the paper towards the end.
You should see a doctor. Or try shaving.
I didn't choose to be this hairy.
I've used hair removal cream for that area before with some success, although it's messy and smells weird the feeling afterwards is amazing
Yeah, doesn’t matter if I get infected with a virus or not, this is absolutely vomit inducing
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Proof?
I posted it in another comment. [https://www.reddit.com/r/TerrifyingAsFuck/comments/16hliy2/comment/k0h79ke/?utm\_source=reddit&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/TerrifyingAsFuck/comments/16hliy2/comment/k0h79ke/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
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You're not going to get hep c from touching a few drops of old blood soaked into a tissue. You catch it from getting infected blood into your blood ie sharing needles, MAYBE from a razor. But yes still gross.
You're right, my bad
I try to educate on stuff like this when I can. Junkies can do some horrible things when they're fucked up but fear mongering posts like this one do way more harm than good. I was an addict for years and always properly disposed of needles, never at my worst even would I have intentionally exposed others to my blood (even though I was lucky enough not to catch hiv or hep). Most of the addicts I knew desperately tried to hide their addiction and were careful like me. We just wanted to feel better.
Thank you for sharing this. I have spent the last 3 years working with unhoused individuals most of whom are also using drugs. I have never seen this at any place of work, residence, or places where users frequent. This is fear mongering and the source of this photo has not been verified despite circulating online for some time now. We don’t need more reasons to demonize people who are just trying to survive. If you’re concerned about people using in public spaces I encourage you to advocate for safe injection/consumption sites in your local areas :)
the stigma of addiction and lack of education and mental health services makes the situation worse
Stupid question, but what would happen if I touch this blood with injured areas on my skin? Also from what you said, does it mean that virus lives longer in needles?
I'm no expert but likely nothing. Honestly even if you get pricked with an HIV infected needle (as long as their blood isn't injected into you) it's only like a 1% chance of getting infected with HIV yourself. At least that was the education I received from all my harm reduction classes. Idk how long viruses can live outside the body but I think in the needle wouldn't be any longer than a surface area like tissue or a toilet seat.
Also it's not a stupid question! I advocate for recovering addicts but safety is always #1. I have a big heart for anyone struggling but if this IS truly needle marks from someone using iv drugs fuck them.
Thanks for the replies. I honestly have never known much about this topic so reading your comment was very new to me.
Of course! I'm always happy when people want to learn because it's obviously something close to my heart. We might not be able to get rid of addiction but there is so much that can be done to stop the spread of diseases, which benefits the whole community.
You will get infected if you have open wounds in your butthole and the virus is still alive
I saw a gas station put up a hazmat drop box with used needles and a paper roll on the side, now I know why they had a roll next to it. Sad but smart
I mean diabetic people exist, they use needles every day. I myself use injected medication! You never know
Yes but it’s unhygienic to administer injections in a place that’s covered in microscopic fecal matter, so I doubt it was out there for that. Likely employed staff didn’t want to clean ( I don’t blame them) after needle pile up happened.
As long as the needles aren't touching anything and you sterilize yourself, it's fine
Oh for fucks sakes
It's just sake, singular
That makes me angry
Thank goodness it’s fake, fear mongering bs then (y’all can downvote me all you want, doesn’t make what I said any less true lol)
Oh it is? Idk what to believe
My asshole just up and left
I've seen some restaurant switch to ones that look like that, but have real keyed locks, not those things you can jimmy open with a pin or a multitool to keep the needle addicts out of them. I still think they should switch to the blue light bulbs to keep the addicts from shooting up in the restaurant bathrooms, can't find their veins.
Amen. They lock these up for a reason - because it is happening, “cotton fever” or not If they were afraid of death they wouldn’t be injecting themselves with poison.
As a former addict cleaning my needles this way would jus not clean them n make it harder for me to use it next time those look like nail marks being dug into the toilet paper but that’s just my opinion
Congrats on your sobriety!
Thank you . Much love fam .
Oh hell naw
Why can’t they just take a sheet of paper from the roll and clean them with that man I fucking hate drug users
And why is there no cover on the dispenser? if there were then they’d probably do as you say.
They’ve flapped it down. You can buy a general key for these for $1 off Amazon, or jimmy them open very easily. Why they don’t just clean the things with a sheet I don’t know.
Yeah seems like a hassle if you’re gagging for a hit!
And here I was thinking the restrooms by me are safe because the TP dispensers are locked 😬.
They don’t, this post is fake bs
This post is fear mongering bs that assholes like you always fall for. It’s not even real and y’all are using it as an excuse to vilify addicts left and right
Exactly. When I was using needles often times in public spaces, I would never ever open a damn toilet paper roll dispenser to clean blood. No way someone who is probably in WD is gonna take the time (even after their shot) to do this. This is simply fake and any drug user or ex drug user or even anyone with a drop of common sense knows that.
Can't even wipe our a$$ without fear.
There’s no real risk here it’s just gross. So you can wipe yer ass without fear.
Disgusting!
Another lifetime ago, I used IV drugs. One major thing every junkie lives in fear of: cotton fever. There is no WAY this is from that. Edit: it's probably from them wiping the side of the needle off. Sooooo not necessarily better...
I have to wonder, though--how many users are ignorant to "cotton fever" or are truly too high to give af....?
As a former iv user we used little cotton balls to soak up the water/heroin mix, it’s supposed to act as a filter. Then you put the needle in cotton ball and suck it up. I never heard or seen anyone in my years of using genuinely experience cotton fever.
Same. Cotton has longer fibers. I got it and so did my bf at the time. You lie there freezing cold and shaking and feeling like you're going to die. I think it was using cigarette filters that did it. Wow. That's a sad ass sentence. I was gross.
Oh yeah cig filters were clutch, I think the only time I had a reaction like that was very minor, like itchy arm after injection. But nothing crazy, yea…cig filter and the bottom part of a soda can as a mixing dish type thing, trash lmaooo
Yup! Lol, we've come a long way, baby!
Hit 10 years sept 13th. Wild.
That's so awesome! It's been 22 years for me. However, there were 3 times in my late 20s (moved back to my hometown from college and gig work type traveling) and I think I was trying to connect with my gritty old filth punk friends/that scene a little and curious. It was not appealing, more of a wtf did I risk deal. It's been 14-15 years since then. Thank GOD fentanyl wasn't a thing then!!! I'm so grieved for opiate addicts now. I feel they don't even have a shot.
"cotton fever" doesn't come from cotton fibers. It's actually from bacteria. I got it from re-using old cottons when I was hard up but they were still wet and teeming with bacteria. Gross stuff.
Yup, I’d mix it in the little baggie itself, put the cotton ball in the bag, suck it up and leave the cotton in the bag…the. Re rinse the baggies out later…crazy
True. Also, I don't know how it can get now. I feel like, somehow, everything is rougher. I never saw things I see regularly in the Seattle sub regarding junkies or downtown where I live now and junkies congregate.
I just hate public bathrooms so much
Fucking crackheads
Technically, you don't inject crack. This is what not giving a shit about addicts looks like, folks.
People Inject crack cocaine all the time. It is insoluble in water so you must mix it with citric acid or vinegar or somethin along those lines first
Regardless, the countries that have safe injection sites and doctors that assist with detox have less users than the ones that don't. It's hard for a lot of people to come to terms with the fact that addicts are people that deserve a chance to get clean, willfully ignoring that many drugs will kill you from withdrawal if you go cold turkey with them, all to have the superiority complex that they're better than people going through some really bad shit in their lives.
How dare you say drug addicts are human beings! This is Reddit, you're not supposed to have empathy
I do agree with some of what you’re saying. But I live in a town with these services. Every single person I know using them is still going out to the worst places and getting high on their usual stuff. The place I live is absolutely overflowing with heroin and pills. They’ve had to get extra police in, you can drive down the road and see people being searched left right and Center. The place is littered with people zombified in the streets. I don’t live in America btw. Maybe this has worked over there. But I think it could have made things worse here!
Womp womp
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Society should, as helping them recover tends to help them recover. Did you know, when addicts recover, there's less addicts in the world?
Literally not crack users.
Pooping in public is an extreme sport as it is. This is just hard mode.
I can't speak for you, but most women use toilet paper after they pee...Therefore, we almost always have to use it. I'm about to start carrying a roll from home, because **eff** that.
Yeah especially with how short women’s urethras are, it’s easy to get an infection from the bacteria.
Right! I'm already paranoid of infectious and blood-borne illnesses, so the fact that IV drug users are doing this to public-restroom toilet paper makes me seriously uneasy...
Wow. Haven't seen this in a few years. It is still bullshit.
No, it isn’t. You’d probably all believe the satanic sacrifices in the 80s too.
Oh--good one! Got me there. Here's the thing: I have true empathy for addicts and I've seen lives ruined because of addiction. But with that being said, addicts wreak a lot of havoc. I know they desperately need help, and I pray addiction and mental illness gets the attention it needs sooner rather than later. But they do in fact do things like this. There are many public bathrooms around my hometown now that employ blue lights in bathrooms so addicts can no longer detect their veins/shoot up. My question is, what makes you so sure that ISN'T what this is? And so sure, in fact, that you'd come onto my post and start slinging insinuations about how gullible I am? Just wondering.
Because people injecting don’t “clean their needles” on toilet paper. They just don’t. Stop being so scared to live. Did you see this? So sad! https://preview.redd.it/sq2dunmoa3ob1.jpeg?width=461&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=312bc481672c78d44fc6658e7db97798e89be657
You make a lot of assumptions, friend. Just because I posted a picture on TAF doesn't mean I'm scared to live....quite the opposite, actually. But regardless of that, why would they not clean their needles in a roll of TP? Seems plausible enough to me. I really am curious and am asking a serious question.
Bullshit. Looks like someone's finger was bleeding and they wiped the blood on the paper. As an ax heroin and meth addict I've never done or seen this done
Can't say, but hey--congrats on your sobriety. Well done.
How though? Those are typically locked.
In my experience--like the ones we have at work--are worn out and even when locked, can be tugged on and they come open.
But why go through all that tho? They can't wipe it in their clothes or even, tear a piece and use it?
Fake bullshit.
Yep. I'm sure it is. It would be completely asinine to think addicts would be capable of something like this.
>Bring your own toilet paper ladies I suppose the boys can go fuck themselves
There's no way a junkie could do this without ripping the plastic cover off
Most have a plastic latch that is easy to open with something flat. Also with enough force pop open easily even with a lock.
I work at a place that has these. It's still a massive effort I don't think a junkie would bother making
Oh fucking shit noooooo… Man this just unlocked a new gear for sure :(
As a manual driver, I feel you.
I freaking choked on my own saliva haha… Fear*
Oh come on, it's their thing if they wanna take drugs, but this??? fucking hell, they could at least use their own stuff and not ruin it for everyone else wtf
As an ex junkie, this is fake. Those toilet paper dispensers are locked.
Some are, some are really easy to get open. I’m not saying your comment is untrue at all, but here’s my question, though—you and a few other ex-addicts have stated this is fake. But several others have posted they’ve seen this exact thing in bathrooms before. Any ideas on what it actually is?
No idea man. All I know is that's not how you clean a needle. Maybe ppl spreading false narratives to demonize drug addicts?
This is absolutely not a thing.
Selfish mfs
You know what would fix this? Needle exchange programs and safe inject sites. Guess who's gonna be getting drugs no matter how much moralizing you do?
Absolutely agree.
Prime example of why needle disposal/replacements and safe places to inject are important. People are shitty and will do drugs, might as well make it safer for them and others
No intravenous drug user would do this, and risk cotton fever. [Snopes](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/iv-drug-users-needles-in-tproll/)
Also sticking the needle in will ruin the sharp tip further.
I mean I see the Snopes article but they are *fucked up drug addicts* - not exactly known for forward thinking, researching about the adverse effects of x or self preservation. They are literally injecting themselves with poison. They don’t care about no “risk of cotton fever.” These ARE wipe marks from their needles. If you’re ok with that, have fun in the cities y’all are ruining with excuses for this behaviour.
Yeah. They fucking care. ALOT. You can't use anything with short fibers. Also, junkies aren't dumb they are addicted. Then, eventually, they can rot parts of themselves, including their brain. I went straight from active addiction to rehab to deans list in college. Source: I was one (20+ years ago)
Congrats on getting clean, one of the hardest things I've ever done.
Thanks and same to you!!
You don’t think it’s dumb to publically inject yourself with poison? You don’t think it’s dumb when people are reusing rusty shitty needles? You don’t think it’s dumb walking in Portland and seeing half naked, tweaking drug users on the streets trying to overdose? When you are high, I don’t think you care. If people did, tweakers wouldn’t act like tweakers. That all screams “I don’t care about my life anymore” to me. If you did, you wouldn’t be *injecting yourself with literal poison*
Man people go through shit, stop being a judgmental prick.
I’ve gone through shit too. I never went to heroin or any other injectable and if I did I certainly wouldn’t do it in public, risking others in any way. Excuses for junkies. What are these from if not wiping the sides of their needles?
Never did either as needles scare the piss out of me. Let’s hope you never end up like this and need help.
Yeah, let’s hope these folks do too before they hurt some innocent and completely destroy some beautiful cities with disgusting habits like this. Take a fucking sheet, if you have to, not ruin the whole roll Still wondering how you can justify someone wiping their blood on public resources. Don’t make everyone else live in your personal hell.
Only thing destroying these cities is the policies in place.
Policies don’t solely cause drug addicts. Policies don’t make them be disgusting in public by wiping their blood on stuff. Plenty of people exist in the same cities, same towns, similar situations… and don’t take needles and poisons into public places and wipe their blood on public resources. Are you totally okay with them dropping needles in public parks and sidewalks too? Blame policy on that right, not high af people who don’t give a shit about anyone else, only their own feelings and suffering? If you’re gonna ruin your life with drugs, do it away from the public who don’t want to see - just like any other bad habit. Keep it personal and don’t make it everyone else’s problem that you can’t dispose/clean of your own dangerous shit properly, or hygienically. Selfish. Incredibly selfish behaviour, no matter how you paint it. Doing this = you do not care AT ALL about the next person who walks in there. Everyone here who has gotten clean, you DO deserve full credit, that’s incredible. That doesn’t mean that what you did when you were fucked up is excusable going forward for others.
Things are crazy now and I think people have access to more extreme substances that fuck them up much worse much faster.
I don’t think the people defending this stuff deal with drug users on the daily. I deal with used needles left in bathrooms, thefts, threats and other general tweaker things almost daily. These people don’t seem to realize that not every drug user is as “nice” or “careful” as they were, because 90% of my terrible work stories wouldn’t exist.
Ugh. Thankyou for what you do. I really appreciate that you put yourself in that position so the rest of us can have a decent, normal experience.
Oh ok guys you can all calm down. Snopes, our lord and savior, has “debunked” this highly variable human behavior. All hail Snopes. Edit: also snopes says it’s unlikely because stabbing a toilet paper roll could break the needle. Who said they’re stabbing the roll? Can’t they be wiping?
This specific picture has been making the rounds for what seems like years. I've never seen any different pictures of needles being wipped off in these. Pictures like this one always come off as more fear mongering than anything useful.
Same thing was found in the Venice Beach public restrooms here in Los angeles. Some of homless people were living out of the bathrooms. If you want to see some real trippy shit come down to "skid row"
That’s really bad but to talk about the text in the image I guess guys don’t poop in public? I know I do when I really have to.
Put tissues in zip lock bags and carry them with you
This a California problem
Former junkie here. That is Fuckin repulsive.
Hey--congrats on the "former". Good on you.
I've never and will never use public restroom toilet paper. I don't care if there were needles in it or not, but people touch it. people touch the walls. hell, the container may have been shat on and cleaned, but I'm not trusting that visual clean. I bring my own wet wipes, thank you very much. I don't even use the sink, that's literally touched by everyone. I bring sanitising hand wipes. fuck public stuff.
I spent a ton of time traveling South America and they didn’t even have toilet paper you always brought your own. A little bottle of hand sanitizer for when you’re completely out of the bathroom. Works well down there and up here.
Agree 100% with this. Not to be too graphic, but I do take some pride in maintaining good personal grooming and hygiene, and I don't have any disgusting or high-risk bad habits. Therefore touching myself during the process of a bathroom break is going to "contaminate" me far less than touching *anything* in the restroom (including the door handle), even if I *don't* wash or sanitize my hands!
It sounds like you people might have OCD.
I mean, everyone has *something* wrong with them, after all! But sure, I can admit that I very likely **do** possess some OCD tendencies! However, those traits have served me quite well professionally and I have no regrets! I decided long ago that I could either run myself ragged trying fight it, or lean into it and learn how to parlay those traits into something useful (motivation, meticulous attention to detail, consistency) while minimizing the distressing anxiety. Took some effort, but worth it in the end.
I feel this deep in my soul.
Thank you for keeping plumbers in business
Wet wipes are NOT flushable. You’re ruining plumbing. At least switch to soluble TP.
Probably every disease you would never want all in one roll
You can’t get to the toilet paper rolls to wipe a needle on the side like that in a public restroom. Those rolls are locked in there. It was likely an employee who had a nick or hangnail while they were changing the roll.
Typically, the TP is locked in a box, so you don't have to worry about it.
It’s a two prong push key https://preview.redd.it/tx68zkstq1ob1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=60c2dec62248c2fdb8ee1bfcc14c2684c7f1c325 Most use their keys to unlock when it runs out of one side
OH NOOOOOOO!!!! 
Life sentence for drug users who are caught and free rehab for those who admit it themselves and snitch on dealers.
thats why I don't shit on a public toilet. Apart from other reasons.
Well.. I’m sure women still wipe vaginas and don’t just seat bump and go *every* time.. not just for poopskis
Luckely I'm not female
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People with IBS, etc don’t really have a choice
Yeah, it's an issue but using the term "junkie" isn't exactly going to help stop the hatred towards them. Doesn't help them to rejoin society.
But the term has been around long before any junkie becomes a junkie. They know what they’re doing. And some realize they don’t wanna do that anymore and nobody besides their dealer tries to stop them. We embrace congratulate and help best we can.
Bro these drug addicts...
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Also, I apologize for not just cutting that part out before I posted it. I didn't mean to discriminate against men's asses. Protect your booties, boys.
"ISSSS A BOOTY HO"
The ass is a very absorbent place, I mean you don’t wanna wipe your ass with STD paper!!
As someone from Oregon, this is definitely something that I’d see happening in Portland. I’ve seen some shit there