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Report: Safe smoking kits include free crack pipes — and here's the proof
A new report from The Washington Free Beacon has alleged that at least some of the safe smoking kits that the Biden administration's $30 million safe smoking program may bolster do, in fact, include free crack pipes.
What's a brief history here?
In February remarks, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki insisted that such kits — provided to drug users for a safer experience — did not include free smoking paraphernalia, and said that pipes "were never a part of the kit" and that contrary reports were "inaccurate."
"A safe smoking kit may contain alcohol swabs, lip balm, [and] other materials to promote hygiene and reduce the transmission of diseases ... like HIV and hepatitis," she said at the time.
What are the details?
In a Thursday morning report, the Free Beacon noted that crack pipes are available in safe smoking kits all up and down the East Coast in cities such as Boston, New York City, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and more.
The outlet's Patrick Hauf obtained the kits through visits to "harm reduction organizations."
"While the contents of safe-smoking kits vary from one organization to another — and while those from some organizations may not contain crack pipes — all of the organizations we visited made crack pipes as well as paraphernalia for the use of heroin, cocaine, and crystal methamphetamine readily available without requiring or offering rehabilitation services, suggesting that pipes are included in many if not most of the kits distributed across the country," Hauf wrote.
Hauf also pointed out that all of the centers that the Free Beacon's reporters visited "are run by health-focused nonprofits and government agencies," which Hauf said are the groups eligible to receive funding from the Biden administration's grant program.
"None of the organizations responded to inquiries about whether they applied for government grants," he added. "It is not clear which organizations will receive those grants, nor has the administration said how it will ensure the kits will not contain crack pipes. The Department of Health and Human Services, which will oversee the Biden grant program, declined to provide a list of groups that have applied for funding, citing 'confidentiality.'"
The administration, however, is poised to announce the recipients on May 15.
A deeper look
In Baltimore, a non-profit organization that provides harm reduction services apparently provides crack pipes, and an employee told the outlet that identification is not required to receive a kit.
The kits, Hauf reported, contain a variety of items including "glass crack pipes as well as Chore Boy copper mesh, a cleaning product used to hold the crack rock at the end of the pipe."
"Most importantly, the organization provides all drug paraphernalia recipients an 'Authorized Harm Reduction Program Participant Card' that serves as a get-out-of-jail-free card to show to law enforcement, because the paraphernalia is otherwise illegal in the state of Maryland," Hauf added.
Hauf's report added that the organization receives both local and state funding, and has reportedly received at least $200,000 from billionaire George Soros' Open Society Foundations. The group, Hauf reported, "received $200,000 in government grants in 2019."
In Boston, the story was much the same.
"One pipe per person, once a day," an employee reportedly told the outlet.
In New York City's Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center, an employee offered up a "long menu of drug paraphernalia" that is available to users free of charge.
"Included on the menu was a 'booty bump' kit for rectal ingestion of narcotics, which is recommended by many harm reduction centers as a safer way to use meth," Hauf explained and added that the Alliance for Positive Change, which oversees the harm reduction center, received at least $20 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services since 2004.
A harm reduction center in Washington, D.C., also reportedly hands out a variety of pipes and mouthpieces without even asking for identification.
The center, known as HIPS — or Honoring Individual Power and Strength — is said to have received $3.1 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which Hauf points out oversees the Biden administration's harm reduction program.
You can see photos of some of the kits below.
Yes, Safe Smoking Kits Include Free Crack Pipes. We Know Because We Got Them.\n\nI visited these "harm reduction" spots on the east coast. What I saw was a system where addicts are handed pipes, needles, and more with no offer of rehabilitation. @FreeBeacon \nhttps://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/yes-safe-smoking-kits-include-free-crack-pipes-we-know-because-we-got-them/\u00a0\u2026pic.twitter.com/NArCqzJFOp— Patrick Hauf (@Patrick Hauf) 1652359623
Sen. John Kennedy rips Biden admin over crack pipe controversy: 'This is stupidity'
Republican Sen. John Kennedy (La.) tore into the Biden administration Wednesday over its alleged plan to distribute crack pipes to drug addicts to advance racial equity, calling the news pure "stupidity."
What's the background?
Last week, the Washington Free Beacon reported that President Joe Biden's Department of Health and Human Services had hatched a plan to use taxpayer money earmarked for COVID-19 relief to distribute "safe smoking kits/supplies" to underserved communities as part of a "harm reduction" grant program.
According to the Free Beacon, an HHS spokesperson had confirmed that the kits would provide drug addicts safer pipes to use when they smoke crack cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, or "any illicit substance."
The news set off a firestorm of anger and controversy and resulted in the White House disputing the reporting and claiming that pipes would not be included in the kits. Fact-checkers rushed to the administration's defense, also arguing that pipes weren't necessarily going to be included and that the money would also be spent on other things.
But critics argued smoking kits used elsewhere have almost always included pipes. It seemed the administration was merely caught in the act and backtracked.
Either way, the rub is essentially the same. HHS planned to provide drug users smoking "kits" with certain materials inside for the stated purpose of reducing the risk of harm for illicit drug users rather than preventing the use of illicit drugs.
What did Kennedy say?
In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity Wednesday night, Sen. Kennedy remarked on the lunacy of the plan, arguing that the government should be helping people get off of drugs or securing the border where the drugs flow from instead.
"Once again, intelligence is chasing the Biden administration, but the Biden administration is managing to beat it," Kennedy proclaimed.
"This entire controversy, in my judgment, Sean, is why millions of Americans tonight are thinking, you know, Republicans aren’t perfect, and God knows we’re not, but the other side is crazy," he said. "Now think about this — President Biden has decided to take $30 million of taxpayer money from his emergency COVID bill that he passed with Democratic support last March, and he wants to use it to facilitate the smoking of crack cocaine and meth in the name of racial justice, racial equity. His people say they can make the smoking of crack cocaine and meth safer."
Biden's plan to fund crack pipe distribution is 'stupidity': Sen. Kennedy www.youtube.com
Kennedy wasn't finished there.
"First, why are they using COVID money? Number two, why are they using any money at all? There’s no safe way to smoke crack or meth. Sooner or later, it kills you, and that’s just a fact," he continued. "Why do we want to facilitate it? Why, Americans are asking themselves, wouldn’t we take this money and use it to help people get off the illicit drugs? Why wouldn’t we take this money, the American people are asking themselves, and use it to stop the drugs from coming into our country in the first place by securing the border? And what does any of this have to do with racial justice?"
"Crack cocaine and meth, whether you smoke it or inject it, will kill you. It doesn’t matter what color you are or what your gender is," he added. "Now, look — stupidity is a lot like pornography. It’s very hard to define, but you know it when you see it. This is stupidity."
Anything else?
On Thursday, Kennedy joined his Republican colleague, Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), in sponsoring a bill called the Cutting Rampant Access to Crack Kits (CRACK) Act of 2022 that aims to block the federal government from using the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to fund the distribution of crack pipes.
"I am glad the Biden Administration acknowledges sending crack pipes to our nation’s addicts is a bad idea,” Rubio said in a press release. "It is pure insanity to think the federal government would fund crack pipe distribution. This legislation will make certain the program can never pay for crack pipes, and given the Biden Administration’s position I look forward to their vigorous support."
Report: Biden admin to send crack pipes to drug addicts to advance 'racial equity'
The Biden administration will soon fund the distribution of crack pipes to drug addicts in underserved communities for the purpose of "advancing racial equity," the Washington Free Beacon reported.
What are the details?
The baffling measure is included in the Department of Health and Human Services' fiscal year 2022 Harm Reduction Program Grant program. In the document, the crack pipe plan is described as the dispersion of federal government funds for the slightly more anodyne "smoking kits/supplies."
But a spokesman for the department recently told the Washington Free Beacon that the grant money will do exactly what the headline says it will do.
The distributed kits will provide safer pipes for drug addicts to use when they smoke crack cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, or "any illicit substance." The spokesman reportedly explained that the supplied pipes will reduce users' chances of becoming infected. Glass pipes often used by addicts can sometimes lead to infection through cuts and sores.
The grant program, worth almost $30 million, closed applications on Monday and will begin providing the funds to nonprofit and local government recipients in May.
The Free Beacon reported that applicants for the grant money will be prioritized for selection if they promise to use the funds in "underserved communities," including where there are large African-American and LGBTQ+ populations, as established under President Joe Biden's executive order on "advancing racial equity and support for underserved communities."
With the order, issued in January, Biden set in motion a "comprehensive approach to advancing equity for all, including people of color and others who have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality."
What else?
Other equipment that qualifies for funding in the grant include "harm reduction vending machines," infectious diseases testing kits, safe-sex kits, syringes, vaccination services, and wound care management supplies.
The program has up to $29,250,000 in anticipated available funding and estimates the distribution of 25 awards of up to $400,000 per award over the next three years.
The Free Beacon noted that Democrat-run cities such as San Francisco and Seattle have similarly distributed smoking kits to residents but have backed away from such programs in recent years over concerns that they enable drug users.
Sgt. Clyde Boatwright, president of the Maryland Fraternal Order of Police, told the outlet government resources should be used to prevent illegal drug use rather than aim to make it safer.
"If we look at more of a preventive campaign as opposed to an enabling campaign, I think it will offer an opportunity to have safer communities with fewer people who are dependable on these substances," he argued.
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