By Steve Robinson and Edward Tomic
Maine’s taxpayer-funded “harm reduction” specialists call it “boofing” or “booty dumping,” but those are just pleasant euphemisms referring to the practice of sticking heroin, fentanyl, or meth up your butt.
Maine Access Points, a taxpayer-funded nonprofit based in Bangor, as well as the city of Portland’s city-run needle distribution center are both offering extensive how-to guides and — even anal injection kits — to help drug users squirt narcotics into their anuses.
In Portland, the “Portland Public Health Boofing Kit” comes with a needleless syringe and an informational flyer explaining the proper technique for putting drugs up your butt.
First, users are instructed to find a safe and private spot to “boof your drugs.”
Then, you mix your drugs in a tin with saline and wipe your hands and anus clean.
“Use the provided lube packet to coat the outside of the syringe, this will make insertion easier,” the flyer reads.
The tin, saline, syringe, lube and wipes are all provided in the kit.
“Lay on your side with your knees pulled up in a fetal position, or however is most comfortable. Insert the syringe into your rectum,” the flyer says, adding that the syringe need not go in all that far.
Once the user has just the tip in, they’re instructed to push the syringe plunger and “release your mixture” into the rectum.
Importantly, the guide advises to “let the syringe stay there for a minute so nothing leaks out.”
According to the flyer, boofing is an alternative way to use drugs if your usual injection sites are no longer viable or your lungs need a break from freebasing.
“If you are struggling to hit a vein, or would like to gives [sic] your lungs a break from smoking, boofing is a great option to do your drugs without using a needle or a pipe,” the city of Portland flyer says.
The taxpayer-funded boofing supply guide also gives aspiring boofers this tantalizing tip: “Compared to smoking or sniffing your drugs, boofing may hit harder or faster.”
Tuesday morning, the Maine Wire confirmed in-person that Portland is indeed still handing out free boofing kits.
After a brief wait, the Maine Wire asked for an received a full boofing kit from Portland’s harm reduction clinic, along with two free doses of narcan — the opioid overdose reversal drug — and some fentanyl testing strips.
The boofing kit contained two anal injectors, six packets of lubricant, some sterilizing wipes, and two tins for mixing a rectal cocktail.
The Bangor-based MAP has even more detailed tips for the would-be boofer, including to use a smaller syringe if you can so as not to overtax your sphincter.
The MAP guide also says the best post-boof protocol is to “stay on your side laying down for a few minutes to let [the drugs] absorb in the membrane.”
“Then… You’re good to go!” the taxpayer-funded guide says.
Most importantly, the MAP guide alerts the boof-curious that it’s best to empty your bowels prior to squirting drugs up your butt.
Like the city of Portland, MAP provides handy kits to make it easier — and safer — to anally ingest your drug of choice.
If the pink social media memes weren’t helpful enough, MAP also produced a 30-minute long video exploring the ins and outs of putting drugs in your butt.
In the “All About Boofing” video, MAP’s harm reduction experts — identified only as Kristin and Jessie — explain the benefits of boofing, referring to the practice as a “relatively safe way to consume drugs.”
Boofing, the MAP experts explain, is a great way to allow your veins some time to heal up if they’ve been damaged by too much intravenous drug use. Boofing, they say, reduces the likelihood of developing an infection, which can lead to brain damage.
The MAP experts also explain that boofing can be an “intimate activity” with a romantic partner, but it can also be a way to avoid wasting drugs if you were planning to inject already-prepared narcotics but then struggle to find a vein that hasn’t already been destroyed by previous injections.
Boofing is also a handy stress reduction technique if a user is growing frustrated because their having a hard time “hitting” with the usual needle-to-the-arm method.
“You’re like, ‘Okay, I’m getting really f*****g frustrated. This is really, like, I’m not… It’s not working. Okay, I have this other option, too.’ Right?” one of the experts explains.
Some drug-users who are “used to inserting things in that area” will have an easier time executing a proper boof, MAP states. But for those less experienced with sticking things up their butts, the experts explain that you should use your finger or thumb to guide the syringe and get it to “thumb knuckle depth” before depressing the plunger.
Going any deeper than an inch or so risks perforating your rectum, they warn.
An additional warning: Under no circumstances should you reuse a syringe after you’ve shoved it up your butt.
“That’s extremely dangerous, and can cause sepsis very quickly,” they warn.
The taxpayer-funded public health experts also explain that boofing can cause blood vessels in your rectum to pop, which can lead to bloody stool.
“You might see a little bit of blood,” they say, “and a little but is okay, but a lot is concerning.”
Although they acknowledge that it’s better to not have blood come out of your butt after you’ve squirted narcotics into your anus, they urge boof-curious viewers not to “freak out” if there’s only a small amount of post-boofing anal bleeding.
Both before and after a boof, the public health experts say performing an enema — including with a turkey baster, if the boofer finds an enema kit too expensive — can help improve the hygiene of the boofing experience.
Absent a post-boof enema, contaminants in the drug supply can “linger” in your rectum.
“Especially with how contaminated the drug supply is, it can be really important to clean what… the little bit that’s left or what contaminants aren’t actually getting absorbed,” they say. “That stuff will just kind of linger.”
The harm reduction experts also take time to explain and explore the barriers to boofing that may exist.
According to the experts, some drug users may be reluctant to boof because of a history of sexual abuse or trauma, cultural reasons, “or not feeling really comfortable with anything having to do with the butt.”
It’s important, they say, not to force boofing on someone because you never know who may have butt-related trauma. When exploring the concept of boofing in a group drug-use scenario, MAP advises not to tease a fellow drug user who is reluctant to squirt drugs up their butt because it’s “important to respect people’s boundaries.”
Sadly, the MAP staffers admit that boofing has a stigma in the intravenous drug-use community.
“I think it’d be great if it didn’t have that stigma,” one expert quips.
According to MAP’s most recent Form 990 tax filing, the organization received $498,492 in taxpayer funding in 2021.
More money may soon flow to MAPs through the Maine Recovery Council, which is funded through proceeds of a major settlement with the pharmaceutical companies that created and marketed opioids as safe, non-addictive pain medications.
The Council will oversee the administration of funding totaling $63,000,000 through 2028.
MAP is already slated to receive $75,000 in 2024 for its needle distribution program.
It’s unclear how much of that funding will go to promoting boofing awareness and boofing kit distribution.
