Poll of the Day > Biden to give out safe smoking kits that could include crack pipes.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Conservative legislators are outraged by recent reports that a Biden administration drug harm reduction programme may put some of its funds towards safer smoking kits.
On Tuesday, US Senator Marsha Black of Tennessee wrote to the department of Health and Human Services, expressing grave concerns that a $30 million grant programme from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) could include subsidising drug paraphernalia.
"Government-funded drug paraphernalia is a slap in the face to the communities and first responders fighting against drugs flowing into our country from a wide-open southern border," Ms Blackburn wrote in her letter. "If this is the presidents plan to address drug abuse, our nation is in serious trouble."
A description of the programme, reported by The Washington Free Beacon, says funding could go towards smoking kits/supplies. The Beacon added that an HHS spokesperson explained these kits could include pipes that could be used for drugs like crack cocaine.

Awesome. Sounds great.

but the story is about clean needles as well

Yes, the easy reaction is: "OMG we're encouraging people to use drugs".

The point is:
1) We're paying a large medical for treating drug overdoses. Whether conservatives want to pretend it's not happening or not we're all paying for the treatment of these people in the hospital because they aren't turned away: the costs for those not covered by insurance are added to the costs of doing business, those are passed to insurers...and then us. Furthermore, they use up beds that could be devoted to others (particularly in a pandemic).
2) We're paying a large prison bill for locking all of these people up, feeding them, etc.
3) We're paying a large societal cost because of crime linked to drug abuse.
Etc etc.

I would hope that this is an example of engaging with the problem and trying to solve it, rather than pretending that by simply opposing it (declaring war on it) every step of the way we're going to get a good result. Declaring war on countries and occupying them is a great way to make the people there not like us and drift towards viewpoints we dislike. Declaring war on drugs is a great way to lose connections with drug users and push them into the arms of criminals who happily profit from them. Neither "war" is effective at achieving the goal we say we want to achieve: it just satisfies a simplistic "we're fighting bad guys" need that many have.

But again: is the program in the article going to do more harm than good? I don't know. I seriously doubt that those complaining have thought it through either.

How exactly does "now you can do heroin without worrying about AIDS" "pay and encourage people to get addicted to drugs"? From where I stand, that's generally just going to mean you've got a similar number of heroin addicts, but fewer with HIV.

Or, you know, you could try doing something productive like putting people through rehab. Just a thought there, buddy.

Among other things, normalizing the usage can make it even more widespread.

yea this is EXACTLY government's role -- pay and encourage people to get addicted to drugs. oh so glad we are becoming more and more dependent on government handouts. we also need government to cook all our meals, brush our teeth. heck, who needs elections, just let the government vote on our behalf, too.

we also need government to [...] brush our teeth.

Can I get one of those just for the novelty? Show it off and have something interesting to talk about at parties?

Or would the police take advantage and use it as evidence to frame me?

Why do you think drug paraphernalia would make you interesting at a party

yeah, why do you think there's iodine in your water

Pretty pathetic though. At least Reagan gave out actual crack.

Pretty pathetic though. At least Reagan gave out actual crack.

Pretty pathetic though. At least Reagan gave out actual crack.

That's floride. Iodine is in salt.

Hes a big dummy. Still, given that the war on drugs is a complete and total waste of money failure, and that countries that have tried similar programs where they treat drug addiction instead of punishing it have seen marked drops in drug use and addiction, sounds like a good idea to me.

Of course, I'm sure OP would prefer that we keep throwing cheap labor into the prison industrial complex rather than actually try to solve the problem, so really I'm just talking to a brick wall here.