Well, here we go again America. As drug overdoses have skyrocketed across the nation, the Biden administration, instead of using government funds to help addicts clean up will instead fund the distribution of tools to help them partake in the illicit activities.
The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics is estimating there have been 100,306 drug overdose deaths in the United States during a 12-month period ending in April 2021, an increase of 28.5% from the 78,056 deaths during the same period the year before.
President Biden’s Health and Human Services department (HHS) is finalizing funding to give out crack pipes to drug addicts as part of its ‘Harm Reduction Plan.’ The grant program lasts three years and includes 25 awards of up to $400,000.
In their hyper-politicization of the issue, the government is using social justice as its justification for the funding as it would especially help people of color, who they say have been disproportionately affected by their use of drugs and partaking in unsafe homosexual activities.
The program, which accepted applications until Monday and will begin doling out money in May, advancing ‘racial equity.’
The funds will be also be used to distribute safe smoking kits/supplies, sterile syringes, safe-sex kits, and prevention education about synthetic opioids and other substances. Groups will get priority if they serve addicts in ‘underserved communities,’ such as African Americans or Native Americans, or LGBTQ people.
HHS said the kits aim to reduce the risk of infection when smoking substances with glass pipes, which can lead to infections through cuts and sores. The kits will serve to limit the risk of infection – typically users smoke out of glass pipes which can lead to cuts and sores that become infected with diseases like Hepatitis-C.
Democratic-run cities such as San Francisco and Seattle have distributed smoking kits to residents. Some local governments, however, have in recent years backed away from their smoking kit programs over concerns they enable drug abuse.
Louisville, Ky., for example, allowed convenience stores to sell smoking kits but later banned them. Legislators in Maryland ditched their distribution plan after facing backlash from local law enforcement and African-American leaders.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department (DOJ) signaled it is trying to figure out to get around federal laws prohibiting the funding and/or distribution of drug paraphernalia.
On Monday it may allow ‘safe injection sites to open up across the U.S. Such sites would be safe havens where drug users could use heroin and other narcotics freely without risking arrest in an environment monitored by health professionals.
The DOJ told the Associated Press it was ‘evaluating’ such facilities and talking to regulators about the ‘appropriate guardrails.’ The DOJ under the Trump administration had prosecutors who fought aggressively against a plan to open safe consumption sites in Philadelphia.
‘Although we cannot comment on pending litigation, the Department is evaluating supervised consumption sites, including discussions with state and local regulators about appropriate guardrails for such sites, as part of an overall approach to harm reduction and public safety,’ the agency said in a statement Friday to the AP.
An appeals court ruled last year that safe injection sites would violate a 1980s-era drug law aimed at ‘crackhouses.’ The Supreme Court in October declined to take up the case.
In spite of the court’s ruling, New York City officially opened two “safe injection sites” called ‘overdose prevention centers’. They provide a monitored place for drug users to take illegal drugs, with staffers and supplies on hand to reverse overdoses.
In reality, this chunk of millions of dollars will do nothing but allow people with various addictions to continue in their life-destroying activities, but with better pipes, and with people watching so they can try to save their lives after they overdose.
Eric Thompson, host of the Eric Thompson Show.
Follow Eric on his website ETTALKSHOW, and social media platforms, MAGABOOK, Twellit & Twitter.
This story syndicated with permission from Eric Thompson – Trending Politics
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