Ask the Mercury readers!

The article I wrote in last week's paper about Portland having the purest heroin in the nation (we're number one!) is attracting some interesting comments:

I am a junkie, 14 months clean. I have done a lot of Portland heroin, and I can safely say that 90 percent of it pretty weak compared to the rest of the west coast, east coast, vancouver, BC etc. Ask any junkie who has moved here and they will tell you the same. If cops think the heroin here is stronger and that overdoses are more common because of that "fact", then Portland drug unit has some catching up to do. Heroin here typically runs $30-40 a gram whereas decent stuff typically sells for $80 plus in my experience.

- from doncabellero

and the response:

i am a junkie, 8 days clean. and I have done a lot of Portland heroin, as well as heroin all up and down the west coast, and I can safely say that the skag in portland is the best i've ever come across. i don't know where the previous poster copped his dope, but i had 3 connections from various parts of portland (one from vancouver, wa), all with very high quality shit... my 3 years of dope use in portland, i've never seen a gram go for as cheaply as $30-40, in fact the best deal i got was basically $100 for 8 balloons which were about .10-.15 grams each.

- from lastpushoff

skag! That reminds me of the hilarious Federal drug "street names" website, where heroin is also known as "Racehorse charlie" "moonstone" and "foolish powder."