No, Biden Is Not Handing Out Crack Pipes. Here’s Why Activists Do.

Conservatives have spread the word over the past week patently false claim that President Biden is spending millions of federal dollars on free “crack pipes.”

No, the Biden administration is not giving out “free crack pipes,” as Tucker Carlson claimed on his show Tuesday night, specifically touting the racist rumor that the alleged pipes were being given “to Black people.” Carlson and far right lawmakers are exploiting the harmful and racial stigma that still surrounds crack cocaine to score political points and get attention — and their attacks signal a broader backlash against crucial efforts to contain the drug overdose crisis and protect public health.

Some harm reduction groups do hand out free glass pipes for smoking stimulants, counterfeit painkillers and other drugs, a practice conservatives have recently scrutinized in liberal enclaves such as Portland and Seattle, although it’s nothing new.

Smoking is a drug that some drug users use. increasingly popularAlternatives to injecting drugs using syringes can be found. This can lead, among other things, to abscesses, HIV, and hepatitis C infection. Jim Duffy, founder, of the organization, stated that giving free pipes encourages this much safer practice than syringe usage. He also says that it brings medically fragile people in touch with a range o services, including HIV testing, medical care, and pathways to addiction treatment. Smoke Works Harm Reduction. The non-profit group supplies pipes for syringe exchange programs throughout the country. provenTo prevent overdoses, and the spread of diseases.

“Every inroad we can make into different drug-using communities — stimulant users, for example — is another avenue for overdose prevention and medical and recovery services,” Duffy said in an interview.

Syringe exchanges and groups like Smoke Works won’t be receiving federal funding earmarked for pipes anytime soon. Instead harm reductionists will develop their own methods to gather safety supplies through mutual assistance: Smoke Works collects donations and purchases pipes at wholesale prices. Then, it shares the discounts with other harm reduction groups.

The uproar over “crack pipes” comes at a critical moment in the overdose crisis. For decades, syringe swaps and other harm reduction programs have been denied federal funding due to stigma, misinformation, and conservative resistance. Meanwhile, the government’s efforts to contain the overdose crisis with prescribing restrictions and law enforcement have failed. The Biden administration took no action as the number of drug-related death rose to record levels during the pandemic. tentative movesTo support harm reduction and continue to pour money into “traditional” policies rooted in the “war on drugs.”

February 7th was deadline for applications to the Health and Human Services Grant Program (HHS) funded by Congress. It offered $30 million in funding to harm reduction programs. It’s a fraction of the money funneled to drug policeIt is not as significant, but it is still important: The grant program the legal reforms behind itThese funds are the result years of activism and protest. The funding will be used to fund harm reduction programs that provide safety supplies such as clean syringes, HIV testing kits, bandages for injuries, and naloxone. This opioid antidote reverses overdoses and saves many lives.

Most of these supplies are considered necessary for protecting public health and are no longer controversial, but conservatives pounced when they discovered the grant program includes funding for “safe smoking kits/supplies.” Safe smoking kits contain items that make smoking drugs out of glass pipes safer, including screens that act like filters, mouthpieces, alcohol swabs and lip balm.

Conservatives were wrongly accused evidence-basedFor decades, harm reduction programs that promote drug use have been in existence. However, after a vague first statement from HHS the claim that Biden was handing over taxpayer-funded crack pipes became viral with the help of Republican lawmakers. The federal grant program prioritizes funding for “underserved communities,” which right-wing outlets interpreted as people of color and suggested that Biden is handing out crack pipes to “promote racial equity,”Racist stereotypes about using cocaine are used to support this.

The White House and HHS made forceful statements clarifying that no federal funding would be used to put pipes in safe smoking kits, but that did little to quell the racist memes about “government crack pipes” on social media. Experts and advocates sayFree pipes are consistent in harm reduction best practices. The Biden administration should stand firm against clickbait misinformation, and support evidence-based solutions for the overdose crisis.

White Press Secretary Jen Psaki said right-wing news reports about “crack pipes” were not accurate and condemned the apparent political opportunism at a time when an average of one American is dying of a drug overdose every five minutes.

“We don’t have time for political games,” Psaki said on Wednesday.

Psaki pointed out Rep. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican who was a member of the House. promoted the “crack pipes” narrative on Twitter but also co-chairs a bipartisan commission that published a report this week endorsing harm reduction effortsIncluding naloxone distribution through syringe swap programs. When confronted by HIV outbreaks in their constituencies, Republicans had to compromise their opposition to syringe exchanging programs in the past.

“The president is focused on saving lives through harm reduction programs,” Psaki said. “That’s exactly what we’re talking about here. They work in red states and they work in the blue states. We know they save lives; they help connect people to treatment and recovery.”

Smoke Works, a group that aims to save lives, uses cost-sharing models for free pipes at syringe exchanges across the country. Duffy did not consider syringe swaps when he smoked methamphetamine. Syringe exchanges are often associated with heroin users. He discovered that syringe exchangings offer a wide range of services in a compassionate environment, regardless of which drug their clients use.

“I would have loved to find a place when I was an active methamphetamine user where I felt like I was treated like a human being, and lo and behold there is one in most major cities, but most people don’t know about it,” Duffy said. “We have lifesaving services that are inadvertently misbranded … you think you have no reason to walk into a needle exchange if you don’t inject, but the services there can change your life.”

Simply put, free pipes provide people with a reason to visit a harm reduction site. Once they have done so, they can access a wide range of supplies that make drug use safer, improve health outcomes, and even help them recover from addiction.

While the majority of coverage of the overdose crisis has focused on powerful synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl which have flooded the illicit supply amid a crackdown painkiller prescribing, fatal overdoses involving heroin and combinations of drugs is also on the rise. accordingAccess to federal data. Along with providing clean syringes, harm reduction efforts — including the federal grant program attacked by Republicans — provide fentanyl test strips, which can help opioid users gauge the potency of drugs, and alert cocaine and methamphetamine users to contamination that increases the risk of overdose.

Injection heroin users in the United States and the West have been known to smoke fake fentanyl-laced painkillers. It makes sense that syringe exchanges offer glass pipes as well as other services to drug users who are switching to glass pipes from syringes. People can also pick up basic medical care, lifesaving medication naloxone, as well as referrals for mental health and addiction treatment while they are doing so. The HHS grant program will allow vaccinations for COVID, and other diseases, to be made available through harm reduction programs. (Vaccinations are already available through some harm-reduction programs.

Duffy was amazed by the “litany of services” when he finally arrived at a syringe exchange, including HIV testing, connections to recovery, medical care and just an “ear to bend for 30 minutes.” By helping harm reduction programs make pipes available, he hopes he’ll help more people who smoke drugs out of glass pipes find their way toward care as well.

“These are people who are otherwise [excluded] from the medical community” due to stigma and deep inequalities in health care, Duffy said.