Heroin dealing in Portland is resulting in huge livability issues for the quite communities because drug cartels that control the drug industry are getting out of street-level dealing, creating a void in the supply chain that addicts are filling. Gone are the days of drug dealing in cities or back alleys. They are not happening at fast-food restaurant, shopping mall and even the Goodwill store. As you are shopping for diaper you may have addicts buy and even using drugs right next to you.

Two weeks ago, police busted a father-mother-son operation that was dealing drugs just blocks from an elementary school. Another bust took place at the Gresham Goodwill after a dealer removed cash from a ceramic vase and left behind heroin for her lurking customer, and a non-fatal overdose in a McDonald’s restroom led police across the street to a nearby hotel room, where the dealers were selling heroin in the middle of the afternoon.

Police say a variety of factors are to blame for this very bold, and very public, brand of drug dealing. Just a few years ago, Mexican drug cartels controlled every aspect of heroin dealing, including the street-level, smaller-scale deals. Drugs also were delivered through calls to “dispatch centers,” which sent “runners” to meet with street-level buyers, usually in cars or other out-of-sight locations. But now they’ve abandoned small-quantity street sales and instead deal only in larger amounts. As a result, heroin addicts are buying those larger quantities, dividing them into grams or half grams and selling them to support their own addictions.
Most of these new street-level dealers are young adults in their 20s who got hooked on oxycodone in their teens, when they crushed, snorted and smoked the pills. Eventually, their habits got too expensive to support, so they switched from smoking oxycodone to smoking heroin.

If you’ve got problems with drugs or alcohol, you should seek treatment and make your life better. Thankfully, there is good help available. Detoxification and behavioral therapy have proven to be effective in treating dependence. Addicts are often unable to complete treatment on their own or with family members, so it’s very important to seek the right treatment center. At Seabrook, we customize our treatment plans to individual patient’s needs, so you know the help you’re getting is right for you or a loved one. Seabrook has rehabilitation centers in New Jersey (NJ), Pennsylvania (PA), and an outpatient center in New York (NY). Contact Seabrook today for any questions about alcohol, addiction, and treatment.