‘It’s raining needles’: Drug crisis creates pollution threat

LOWELL — Increasing numbers of discarded needles from drug users are turning up in cities and towns across the country, finding their way into rivers, parks and onto beaches. In Portland, Maine, officials have collected more than 700 needles so far this year, putting them on track to handily exceed the nearly 900 gathered in all of 2016. In March alone, San Francisco collected more than 13,000 syringes, compared with only about 2,900 the same month in 2016. People, often […]