Back in 2016 when the opioid epidemic was starting to heat up, I started paying attention to the heroin bags laying on the ground. The bags were Small glassine envelopes that hold 0.1 grams of powder (mix of opioids like heroin or fentanyl and cut with adulterants like sugars, baby formula, etc) when full, often stamped with branded names like Scorpion, Black Jack, and Rolex.
They were everywhere, though often torn in two. I played a game with my partner where I said you could find a heroin bag within 50 feet of the ambulance no matter where you parked. I usually did. I loved tracking the bags. There were certain areas where we found more bags than others — by the pavilion near the pond off Park Street, the plaza across from Pope Park, in the parking lot behind Dunkin doughnuts on Albany Avenue, over by the Fast track bus station on Frances Ave, areas where people often used after buying the product from local dealers. We also found bags on the actual overdose scenes we responded to.
Some people collect coins, others baseball cards, some figurines. I collected heroin bags and wrote down all the names.
1, 64, 121, 127, 2017, 12 Monkeys, 1 of 1, 100%, 23 Jordan, 24-7, 4 Way, 69, 9 Plus, A+, Adidas, AK-47, Alias, Alien Rock, All the Way Down, Amazing, Attitude Adjustment (Fuck You), Arm and Hammer, Avatar, Avengers, Back Off, Bad Boys, Bad Bunny, Balmier, Bass Pass, Batman, Beat Street, Be Cool, Best Buy, Big Apple, Big Doodle, Bingo 9, Biohazard, Birthday Cake, Black Devil, Black Heat, Black Ice, Black Jack, Black Out, Black Panther, Black Rose, Black Sunday, Black Widow, Blaze, Block Party, Blow, Boo!, Blue Apple, Bugatti, Bugs Bunny, Butterfly, Buzz Off, Call of Duty, Camera, Campfire, Candy Cane, Cartel, Cartier, Casino, Casper, Certified Bitch, Check, Check Plus, Cherry, Chicken Curry 30, Chief, Chinese Letters, Chipolte, Chosen Few, Cobra, Come Back, Coca-Cola, Compton, Connecticut, Cool Water, Copy, Crazy Monkey, Crown, Crunch Time, Cum Up, Dance, Day Dose, Dead Flower, Dead Like Me, Dead Man, Dead Men, Denny’s, Design, Designer, Devil, Dice, Diesel, Dinamita, Dinosaur, Dirty Money, Dirty Sprite, Dog, Don Season, Donald Trump, Donkey Kong, Don’t Front, Down Time, Dream Chaser, Danger, Danger Zone, Dubai, Ducatti, Eagle, Eiffel Tower, El Chapo, Emerald City, Empire, EZ Pass, Faces, Faded, Fantastic, Fairy, Fast Lane, Fast Track, Fat Turkey, Faxed, Ferrari, The Finals, Fire, Fireball, Firework, Five Star, Flower, Focus, Foxy, French Montana, Friday the 13th, Froggie, Frown, Fruit Punch, Fuck You, Fury, Future, Game of Thrones, Face, Gatorade, G.O.A.T., Gas Face, Gas Monkey, Get Lucky, Giraffe, Golden State, Good 4 You, Gorilla, Good Work, Got Fire, Goya, Grade A, Grey Goose, Great Job, Great Whites, Green Eyes, Green Dragon, Green is Good, Gucci, Gummy Bear, Guns, H, Hall Pass, Happy, Hard Ten, Harley-Davidson, Headgames, Headphones, Heartbreak, Heaven Hell, Hello Kitty, Hennessy, Hess, High Life, High Power, High Time, High Voltage, Holiday Season, Horsepower, Hot Sauce, Howl, Hulk, HY, Hype, Illuminati, I Got Fire, I’ll Be Back, Impac, It, Indian Chief, Intercontinentals, Its Hot, Jackpot, Jcull Candy, Jason and Freddy, JFK (airport), Johnny Walker, Joker, Joker 2 Go, Jungle, Jungle Killer, Just for You, KD, Kermit, KickStart, Kid Face, Kill Bill, Killer Clowns, Killer Instinct, Killing Time, Killing Season, Kim, King, King of Death, Kiss, Kiss Me, KitKat, KFC, Kmart, KO, Kool-aid, KTM, Lady Bug, Lake of the Dead, Lambergini, Latin Power, Laz-Boy, Level Up, Life Saver, Light Bulb, Lizard, Louis Vutton, Lucky 7, Magoo, Magic, Magic City, Man Down, Martian, Martini, Merchant of Death, MGM, Miami, Middle Finger, Mind Craft, Mind Eraser, Mojo, Money Bags, Most Wanted, Music, Money Talks, Need for Speed, Nelly Rider, New Arrival, New High Score: Ultimate Level, New World, Newport, Newports, NFL, Nick at Night, Nite Nite, Night Owl, Nike, Nirvana, No Evil, No Stopping, Oh My God, Old School, Oliver Queen, OK, OMG, On Demand, One Dab, One to Go, One Way, OTF, Paid, Panda, Panther, Paradise, Passion, Past Due, Patron, Peace Sign, Peter Rabbit, Phat Batch, Pirate, Pirate Ship, Pirates, Playboy, Pokeman, Poker, Polka Dot, Polo, Pooty Tang, Pound for Pound, Power, Power Grip, Power House, Power Punch, Power Shack, Predator, Present, Pringles, Processed, PRV, Public Enemy, Puma, Purple Rein, Racetrack, Race Horse, Ralph Lauren, Reaper, Red Devils, Red Star, Red Bull, Red Fox. Red Line, Red Lion, Remy, Ride or Die, RKO, Rockstar, ROCNation, ROL, Rolex, Rolls Royce, RR, Samsung, Sazon, Satan, Satyr, Scorpion, ShakaZulu, Shine, Ships Wheel, Shooting Star, Sin City, Skittles, Skull and Bones, Sky High, Sling Shot, Slipper, Smart Car, Smiley Face, Smiley Star, Smurfs, Snake, Snapchat, Snapple, Snowman, Soul Survivor, Sony, Space Jam, Spade, Spartan Helmet, Speed Limit 50, Spider, Spider Web, Spring Break, Sprite, Star, Stranger Danger, Stars, Star Wars, Strike Dead, Strong Arm, Summertime, Super Bee, Super Bowl, Super Bowl 50, Super Mario, Supreme, Superman, SweetHeart, Taco Bell, Takeover, Tak’n Over, Team, Telsa, Thank, The Flash, The Mechanic, The Purge, The Finals, The Truth, Thor, Thumbs Up, TKO, Top Gun, Toro, Trump, TS, Tunnel Vision, UCONN, Universe, Unforgiven, Uno, Upside Down, USA, USA Power, USA Skull, Vamp, Venom 420, Versace, Vigilante, W2, Walking Dead, Way to Go, Wendy’s, White Castle, WiFi, Wi-Fight, Wildcat, Wild Fire, Witch Doctor, Wassupp!!!, White Sand, Wolf, World Star, Worldwide, Wow, X, XXX, You First, Zika, Zika Virus
I got so into collecting the bags, I even had some harm reduction bags made up that I would leave in the areas of frequent drug use. They had messages on them like “Don’t Use Alone, OD? Call 911, and Got Narcan?
When I first started thinking about writing a book about the opioid epidemic I was going to call it Heroin Bags of Hartford. Each chapter would have a picture of a heroin bag and I’d write about the call I’d been on that involved that bag. But while I had many good stories, just a book of stories didn’t work too well. I needed to tell a sweeping tale and use stories to illustrate the larger themes: the story of the epidemic, from prescription pills to the emergence of fentanyl, how I came to see addiction as a disease, not a character flaw, harm reduction, the harms of stigma, etc., which is what I did. The finished book, Killing Season: A Paramedic’s Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Opioid Epidemic, got its title from a heroin bag — Killing Season.
One of my early partners tolerated my heroin bag hunts, taking me on the rounds, including dropping me off near encampments where I would disappear into the bushes and come out with some new bags. When we stopped working together I would still take pictures of the new bags and text them to him. Every Sunday morning, he said he would enjoy his coffee at home and wait for the heroin bag picture to come over.
Overdoses have been down over the last several years and heroin bags are not nearly as prevalent as they once were. My suspicion is more of the fentanyl is being sold in pill form now rather than in powder. I don’t look as much for bags either. Today though, my old partner has been out with an injury and me, working on a weekend, I decided I would find a couple bags and send them to him as a surprise. I had my current partner drive to the parking lot behind the Dunkin Doughnuts on Albany Avenue. I didn’t take two steps out of the ambulance before I found some new bags. “Fuck/Love You” and “Stairway to Heaven.”
My partner said she was amazed at the gall of the sellers to advertise death. “Truth in Advertising,” I said. At least the dealers seemed to have stopped putting Bugs Bunny and Kermit the Frog on bags. I took a picture of the new bags and texted it to my old partner. It gave him a laugh to go with his coffee, he said. He was happy to get them. He says he’ll be back at work in a couple of weeks. Hoping we can pick up a shift together, and maybe hunt for more bags like old times.