I’m not moving back to Portland, Oregon because of the widespread use of Meth-Amphetamine there. But let me back-track because when I first moved to Oregon I began running.

In 2016... every Wednesday at 5:30pm… I’d walk to the local High School off of 82nd avenue to run. For context... nearby 2 men were brutally stabbed to death by an addict while aboard public transit only 2 months after I left. It was just different there and for example, this High School where I would jog had barbed wire fences surrounding it almost like a prison.

Whenever I ran there… I would think to myself, “I’d bet that at least one kid has seriously gotten hurt trying to hop this fence." In fact, I’d imagine that many of the area’s local children had been hurt on this street but noticing that the school was pre-occupied with barbed wire fences, in some sort of a crude attempt to deter addicts from stealing their track equipment, it was hard to tell if the school was to blame or the neighborhood itself. And that was usually my thought process, during my walks to that High School… where I’d encounter dozens of Methamphetamine needles littered on the sidewalk before my runs...

Meth needles on my way to this local High School on 82nd Avenue, in Portland, Oregon. -Photographed by: William Larsen

More meth needles scattered along the sidewalk of 82nd Avenue, in Portland, Oregon. -Photographed by: William Larsen. And this photo was taken at 6am, during the Summer of 2016.

Whereby, I don’t want to ramble anyone’s ear off regarding the grave and fatal consequences of hard drug use, nevertheless, a few things did occur to me due after witnessing these hypodermic needles littering 82nd Avenue.

Most notably that I believe this type of pollution has to end.

But maybe littering needles… long ago should’ve been deemed by the judiciary as, “an instant trip to prison." Or, maybe… local police officers needed to set aside their personal fears in order to patrol this neighborhood at all. I don't know. Nevertheless, the reason that these needles bothered me so much was actually far worse because only 2 blocks away was a soccer field where kid's played. And was that soccer field also littered with needles? Had children been hurt here before?

So, I called the local hospital to see if any children had perhaps slid into a hypodermic needle at that park? Nevertheless, the local hospital informed me of nothing except; “that they couldn’t divulge that information to the public,” but then they recommended that I inquire with the local police department. So, I called the local police station and I asked again, “have any children been injured by hypodermic needles littered off of 82nd avenue? Civilians News wants to know and there are children playing soccer in this park 5 days a week.” Yet, again, law enforcement (*which I might add has no problem arresting my friends over marijuana possession every 3 days like complete hard asses) responded, “that they couldn’t divulge that information.” So, to be clear the police department and hospital would not release any information to me... regarding children getting hurt in this manor NOR DID THEY SEEM TO CARE!

And maybe not one single kid had ever slid into a hypodermic needle littered off of 82nd avenue. Or, maybe… 1 or 2 had… but now I don’t know and apparently I have no way of finding out. However, in March of 2017 I was so mad about this that I wrote Detective Simpson (of the Portland PD) about the dangers of that soccer field to which he also did not reply.

Twitter.com/SgtPeteSimpson

And did Pete Simpson even take one moment of his time to reply to my emails? No, he didn’t! Whereby, I can’t even begin to explain my frustrations over a man who makes 60k dollars a year in TAX MONEY, ignoring my request for this information!

*I had hoped to gather more data before posting this story but since Officer Pete Simpson was clearly too busy posting Batman memes on Twitter... I figured that now was a good time to talk about it. And now Portland has lost the tax revenue from my Ai startup... but what's Officer Simpson care? He's just collecting a check.

-William Larsen, Civilians News.