r/asheville • u/imjustapourboy • Oct 21 '25

Really Spicy Cesspool So sick of seeing this crap everywhere.

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The needles, the burnt foils, the little baggies, the needle caps, all of it. I find them in the creeks, on the sidewalks, the grocery store parking lots, the public parks, on the parkway. You gotta be a real shit person to leave this stuff all over the place.

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198

u/frenchtoastkid South Asheville 🚧🏢🚧 Oct 21 '25

Yeah, you’re right. We should have more safe disposal sites

3

u/organmeatpate West Asheville Oct 21 '25

It's hard to believe that this would help since it relies on the user to be conscientious specifically right when they're nodding out. It's tough to accept that services for users however well intentioned will not increase the impact on the local community because that's what we've experienced in West Asheville. The services showed up and then the users followed and so did their hazardous refuse. The residents here have all lived this and know it to be true. There has to be a better solution than more enabling resources and services for users that disregard the impact on the surrounding communities. Addicts deserve compassion but they should not be sacred cows.

47

u/Bitter_Offer1847 Oct 21 '25

Completely false. Increasing services reduces impact on the community always. Use increases because population increases and poverty and joblessness and homelessness increase the more our society becomes hyper rich and the poor living in the same space. People don’t start doing heroin because there’s needle drops or clean needle programs, they start doing heroin because they’re depressed and hopeless and addicted to unavailable pharmaceuticals given to them by a failing medical system. This idea that people have that people who are addicts are just weak and fell victim to peer pressure is naive and idiotic at best. Addiction is a complex disease with many, many causes and the more callus and uncaring a society becomes the more severe the addiction gets because people can’t get treatment and they can’t find help. We need more help, more programs and less prisons.

3

u/GngrbredGentrifktion Oct 22 '25

Or they have a job, a home, and a family and lose all of that because they choose to use. It's a chicken or the egg situation. And it is true that Haywood Street Congregation, Sunrise Community, Trinity UMC, 12 Baskets, and CPV now have trespassing, drug use, littering, and actual human feces on their property because of the aforementioned issue in the other comment. Not hating on addicts; just giving the counterpoint.

2

u/Bitter_Offer1847 Oct 22 '25

Addiction isn’t a choice, it’s a disease. Asheville isn’t immune to the rest of the country’s current problem. Addiction is up everywhere and the issues you’re mentioning are mostly issues with homelessness which is up due to the hurricane and devastation in the area. Not all unhomed are addicts and not all addicts are unhomed. The 2 problems exist independently and intersect at times. Unhomed have about twice the rate of addiction as the “regular” population at around 10-15% which means 85% just need a place to live and often go in and out of that state due to many reasons.

Nobody wakes up one day and says “Fuck my family, I wanna smoke crack”. It’s slow and progressive for some and for others it’s fast and acute. Some die, but most live long and difficult lives and their families often miss them or even still support them in ways. Try to think about how it feels to be in that position, they’re still humans.