Portland, Maine, officials have collected over 700 needles so far this year, putting them on track to handily exceed the nearly 900 gathered in all of 2016 .
People, often children, risk getting stuck by discarded needles, raising the prospect they could contract blood-borne diseases such as hepatitis or HIV or be exposed to remnants of heroin or other drugs.
It's unclear whether anyone has gotten sick, but the reports of children finding the needles can be sickening in their own right.
The needles are tossed out of carelessness or the fear of being prosecuted for possessing them.
One child was poked by a needle left on the grounds of a Utah elementary school.
Among the oldest tracking programs is in Santa Cruz, California, where the community group Take Back Santa Cruz has reported finding more than 14,500 needles in the county over the past 4 1/2 years.
It did away with mobile exchanges and stopped allowing drug users to get needles without turning in an equal number of used ones, said Jason Hoppin, a spokesman for the Santa Cruz County.
Along the Merrimack, nearly three dozen riverfront towns are debating how to stem the flow of needles.
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