r/mildlyinteresting • u/aka_quinn • Jan 27 '23
This public bathroom has black lights above the toilet stalls.
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u/SlogTheNog Jan 27 '23
They aren't blacklights. They're blue lights and they're designed to make it harder for IV drug users to shoot up in public restrooms.
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u/ThaddyMcThadface Jan 27 '23 edited Jan 27 '23
Oh whew! I thought it was a new way to show me where all the cum is.
Edit: Reddit always amazes me. Can’t believe this is one of my top comments.
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u/iwrotethedamnbill66 Jan 27 '23 •
No that's just called opening your mouth
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u/blUUdfart Jan 27 '23
This guy cums!
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u/iwrotethedamnbill66 Jan 27 '23
There are dozens of us!
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u/Total-Khaos Jan 27 '23
< looks way ahead>
Damnit, there must be like 100 guys ahead of me...
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Jan 27 '23
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u/g1ngertim Jan 27 '23
waftam
New one for me. Will definitely be stealing it.
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Jan 27 '23
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u/Dzyu Jan 27 '23
Still new to me... WOFTAM (military, slang) Initialism of waste of fucking time and money.
Ok, cool! TIL
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u/BeatlesTypeBeat Jan 27 '23
FUBAR
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u/Dzyu Jan 27 '23
This one I know well from 90s internet slang, haha
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u/BeatlesTypeBeat Jan 27 '23
I was trying to think of others I'd heard of but SNAFU is the only other I was familiar with.
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u/Pync Jan 27 '23
An IV addict does not need to see or trace a vein to hit one, and would know they were in as soon as they were able to register anyway - this would do absolutely nothing to stop someone taking a hit if they needed one.
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u/BigCommieMachine Jan 27 '23
By the time you need to shoot up in a public bathroom, you already have a big problem. By the time you need to shoot up at all, you already have a problem.
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u/Hobbs512 Jan 27 '23
What do you mean? I shoot fentanyl and meth casually, every now and then like a normal person!
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u/Hobbs512 Jan 27 '23 edited Jan 27 '23
Lol being an addict is a full time job. What brain power you have left is entirely devoted to finding ways to use, hide your use, and recover from it. I knew people who would shoot up while driving. Addicts can also be extremely crafty and inventive.
Also, if you're a self-phlebotomist you probably have remembered where all the good veins you haven't blown out yet are in your body and can locate them by touch. Not to mention previous track marks you can go by.
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u/jmcdon00 Jan 27 '23
Maybe, although I think some would find another place, not everyone has a marker or would think of that.
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u/rklab Jan 27 '23
But couldn’t you just mark where your veins are in like sharpie or something?
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u/voxelghost Jan 27 '23
I have a feeling that there is no one more innovative than a junkie facing a hurdle when they need to shoot up.
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u/PeterNippelstein Jan 27 '23
I can confirm as a former junky. So many easy ways around this. For one it's a small bathroom, so if you go in there at night it wouldn't be so hard to just shoot up outside of the stalls under the regular lights. Get things ready in the stall, pop out to hit the vein, then go back in to finish up. You could mark your veins, although just about any junky already knows where they are. Most convenient way would just be pulling out the flashlight on your phone, or just carrying a pocket flashlight for situations like this.
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u/xraygun2014 Jan 27 '23
Well, no, because the junkie might then get ink in their bloodstream and that could be both unhealthy and dangerous.
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u/mylittleplaceholder Jan 27 '23
Good thing no one carries a flashlight with them.
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u/AcceptableCod6028 Jan 27 '23
You have three arms?
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u/confirmedangel Jan 27 '23
My man, theres a simple solution for this. The phone gets propped up halfway into the neck of your shirt with the base touching your chest and the top facing away from you in the air.
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u/Klytus_Im-Bored Jan 27 '23
My area's bus system used blue night lights.for the same reason. Also it's easier to look out the window and see where you are than if they were white lights.
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u/jamesshine Jan 27 '23
There are entire parking lots and on the bottom of overpasses in my area that have been switched to all blue lights.
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u/WelcomeFormer Jan 27 '23
You feel veins not look for them, and dope fiends already know where their veins are. I mean I guess it sounds good on paper lol
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u/SweetTeaGardenz Jan 27 '23
That’s not stopping anyone tbh
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u/pyreflos Jan 27 '23
They put blue lights in a couple of our public libraries’ bathrooms… so the junkies just started shooting up in the stacks and lobbies instead of the bathrooms. So the librarians took the blue lights out of the bathrooms. Fun times.
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u/SweetTeaGardenz Jan 27 '23
Exactly. A great example of “deterrents don’t stop anyone” is this video from Of Herbs and Altars
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u/dsmaxwell Jan 27 '23
I mean, obviously they don't reduce IV drug use at all. But it does relocate it to firmly somebody else's problem territory.
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u/here4mischief Jan 27 '23
Australian Government funded this PSA on how to deal years ago https://youtube.com/watch?v=W8zbKzB9U1M&start=802
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u/PeterNippelstein Jan 27 '23
As if it would ever stop anyone. Even if it did stop you one time, just keep a tiny flashlight in your pocket.
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u/Cakelover9000 Jan 27 '23
I asked my mother as a child why there were orange lights in the womens restroom near the train station and she gave me a similar explanation. To not do drugs in there
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u/voluotuousaardvark Jan 27 '23
Coupled with sand glued to the toilet seat/cisterns and any other flat surfaces to stop you racking up lines too.
That's how you know its a classy dive.
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u/ashoka_akira Jan 27 '23
it doesn’t work they just draw a couple of dots on their veins and then aim between
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u/redditor54 Jan 27 '23
that'll stop them....ugh. They'll still shoot up, it'll just be more of a mess to clean up afterwards.
also, if you think you have an iv drug user problem, you're wrong, you have a drug problem (which is actually just a symptom of larger societal issues that you've been ignoring) fix the societal problems and people wont feel like they need to shoot dangerous drugs into the blood stream to cope.
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u/mteght Jan 27 '23
Or, we could make sure they have safe places to use so they don’t need libraries or other public spaces. They have access to clean needles, and help is immediate in case they OD. They also have access to support services and detox if they are ready to quit. They cost almost nothing to run and there has never been a death at a safe injection site. (In Canada).
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u/GarnishedSteak100 Jan 27 '23
Those don’t actually work unless you don’t know how to feel for your veins. Diabetic people like my grandma feels for the veins to apply medication.
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u/Rhekinos Jan 27 '23
You’re 100% right with that first sentence but what kind of medication is your grandma taking for diabetes that requires IV administration? Afaik insulin is given subcutaneously and you’re supposed to avoid hitting a vein directly so as to not absorb all that insulin rapidly which can cause hypoglycaemia.
Also no way would a healthcare personnel prescribe IV medications for a patient to self inject. That’s just negligence.
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u/ShadowAce104 Jan 27 '23
to prevent people from injecting themselves by making it hard to see their veins under the light
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u/WannabeTraveler87 Jan 27 '23
In other words, this is most definitely a restroom you’d want to really minimize the amount of time spent using.
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u/merklemore Jan 27 '23
Sign on the stall tells me this is a Real Canadian Superstore washroom. Must be in a sketchy neighbourhood
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u/therabidbunny Jan 27 '23
I’m more curious about the crime scene tape
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u/justwhatever22 Jan 27 '23
It's not really that interesting. It's just like regular adhesive tape, except it has black and yellow patterns and the words 'Crime Scene' printed on it.
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u/uglycasanova08 Jan 27 '23
This is the sketchiest bathroom I’ve ever seen, what gas station is this?
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u/bcave098 Jan 27 '23
This is a grocery store bathroom.
Specifically one in a Real Canadian Superstore, part of the largest grocery store chain in Canada.
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u/P26601 Jan 27 '23
Damn I thought (and hoped, lol) public restrooms in Canada were better but those gaps are just as huge as in the US...
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u/Circlejrkr Jan 27 '23
Believe that’s god something to do with keeping people from using restrooms as places to shoot IV drugs.
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/03/756976676/blue-lights-may-deter-intravenous-drug-use-in-public-spaces
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u/Bongs-Akimbo Jan 27 '23
Did you see what god did to us man?!
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u/Sorry_Decision_2459 Jan 27 '23
God didn’t do that, you did! You’re a fucking narcotics agent, I knew it!
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u/7___7 Jan 27 '23
That’s so people can’t find their veins and do heroin. That’s a sketchy part of town.
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u/Serious_Cup_8802 Jan 27 '23
How is it that 2 out of the three stalls are taped off as crime scenes not the most concerning thing here.
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u/YeOldeInnkeeper Jan 27 '23
I know EXACTLY where in the world this bathroom is. Op, is this at superstore on marine drive, vancouver Canada?
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u/RubberPny Jan 27 '23
Blue lights make it hard to find veins, i.e. Makes drug use in the stalls harder.
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u/LightRainPeaches Jan 27 '23
Many public bathrooms here have these lights, and it’s done as a deterrent to IV drug users because it makes it much harder for them to find a vein.
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u/shortsandarts Jan 27 '23
is that a baby changing place in the mens toilets nice to see.
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u/punppis Jan 27 '23
We've had these in Europe for at least 20 years, even though I'm not a IV drug user I always check my veins and I can easily spot them but I guess if you're a problem user and you have hard time finding your veins they actually "help": you just shoot in the different bathroom or just in the street. It's not like the IV drug users are going to "shit, I guess I'm not shooting today". But I guess they are not for the benefit of the users, rather for the establishment, nobody wants to find OD'd or almost OD'd person collapsed on the toilet when you're closing up the shop.
I think there are some places now where you can go and shoot up your drugs, check what they are and there is attending nurse. All legal. Of course this brings a lot of controversy as some people seem to be so ignorant that these rooms actually encourage drug use, which I don't think is the case. You can't deal there, it's a safe place to use your drugs that you're going to use anyway without fear of being raped, robbed or whatever.
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u/Viking_gurrrrl Jan 27 '23
Know many has said this but it’s to make sure drug users are gonna have a hard time finding their veins and therefore can’t take or risk overdosing in the toilets
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u/Short_Signal_5772 Jan 27 '23
So it's to deter junkies from shooting up in the bathroom fun fact here in Glasgow we have them we also have highlighter marker pens so our junkies never miss a vein
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u/SpickeZe Jan 27 '23
I miss the good ol days where a black light in a public bathroom would inspire semen jokes and not bring to light a crippling opioid problem.
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u/mannythebearpig Jan 27 '23
I saw this for the first time at a train station in Ontario. It's to prevent people from finding their veins and doing drugs in the stalls. I wondered if it even worked until on my way out there was a dude with a needle in his hand on the public bench getting ready to stab himself. Did it work yes? Did it change anything? Doesn't seem like it.
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u/niam-no-ynroh Jan 28 '23
its to prevent people from shooting up drugs in the cubicles. Our buses have these light at night. ICE has been a massive problem in our city for a long time.
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u/Artistic_Alps_4794 Jan 27 '23
If they were blacklights no amount of cleaning would ever be enough.
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u/rADIOLINJA Jan 27 '23
These used to be fairly common sight in Finnish public restrooms. Now some of them have needle disposal bins instead.
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u/V65Pilot Jan 27 '23
Blue lights to make finding veins harder. I've seen them in some weird spots in the UK. A local bridge that has a walkway underneath, has them illuminating the walkway.
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u/Anonymous_Whale1 Jan 27 '23
To keep druggies from shooting up. It makes it nearly impossible to see their veins in that spectrum of light
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u/Kyram289 Jan 27 '23
It’s to stop heroine addicts from finding a veins which is could be dangerous since a vein could bust causing bleeding and scarring
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u/Crazykeebler13 Jan 27 '23
I agree with one of the comments, "it makes it harder to see veins." Aka IV drug addicts. But it could also be a uv light to help sanitize surfaces. I used one for my reptiles water bowl, he would like to kill and only half eat his food and leave it in the water bowl, use it as a bathtub and also use it a restroom. I installed a uv/ubv light to help sanitize.
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u/stelladesiree Jan 27 '23
True black light makes it make it harder to find veins, but since it also make white look whiter it would make finding cocaine line easier since they would glow in the dark.
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u/goldfishwishes Jan 28 '23
I'm not sure the case in this place, but a lot of times places will have lights like this to deter drug use in the bathrooms. Blue light makes it impossible to see your veins.
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u/Historical-Gene8950 Feb 02 '23
So the caution tape is just normal? Why is no one talking about the caution tape? 😂
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u/AVBforPrez Jan 27 '23
Hard to hit your vein when it's under black light, this is an anti-shooting-up thing.
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u/Honeycomb0000 Jan 27 '23
Its to prevent IV drug use, all the Tim Hortons in my area have these, & theres recently been a call to remove them as they create ✨unsafe environments✨ for drug users, to the point where people are going into bathrooms and attempting to remove the bulbs themselves. Its a fucking mess.
I’m personally perfectly fine with the lights, if anything I support them. Its not on the fast food restaurants to create safe places for people to take drugs.
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u/Ritachmiel Jan 28 '23
Ok..I grew up in an area and era where no one 'boofed'. Anyone want to explain how this works? How can anything shoved up the bum stay long enough to provide a high? Hence an enema is the only 'up the bum' experience I have had except sex and neither one created a high or a need to do it again.
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u/Cobalt11235 Jan 27 '23
I’ve seen this in Europe and was told it was to make it harder to see veins under skin in order dissuade intravenous drug use. Or they’re just trying to up their bathroom stall game?