The Biden administration is funding the distribution of crack pipes, according to a report from the Daily Caller, which indicates that so-called harm reduction facilities that received administration grants are in fact distributing the pipes.
The news comes after administration officials insisted taxpayer dollars would not be used for this purpose and described a Washington Free Beacon report on their harm reduction grant program as “misinformation.” The Caller reported Friday, however, that it received two smoking kits that contain crack pipes, condoms, and lubricant from the New York Harm Reduction Educators, which received $398,960 in May from the Department of Health and Human Services through its harm reduction grant program.
The Caller received its crack pipes “after spending about 10 minutes on paperwork with basic information,” according to the report. Not only were they given drug paraphernalia: The reporters were invited to smoke on the premises. One employee asked a reporter to use the crack pipe in a supervised room at the harm reduction center, saying the drug paraphernalia could not be used outside the facility because it was too close to a school.
When HHS announced the recipients of its $30 million harm reduction program in May, it included a note at the top of its grant webpage stating that “no federal funding is used directly or through subsequent reimbursement of grantees to purchase pipes in safer smoking kits.” The announcement came after the Free Beacon first reported in February that the HHS harm reduction program was set to fund the distribution of crack pipes. The White House denounced the story as “disinformation” and said smoking kits funded by its program would not include a crack pipe. The Free Beacon subsequently obtained smoking kits in five East Coast cities that all contained crack pipes.
HHS, in a statement to the Caller, claimed the New York Harm Reduction Educators has yet to use the federal funds it received and that its purchases will have to be approved by the government.
The report comes as Congress moves to stop the Biden administration from funding crack pipe distribution. The House Appropriations Committee this month voted unanimously to include a provision in the HHS budget that prevents the agency from funding the drug paraphernalia.
“None of the funds made available by this Act should be used to purchase, procure, or distribute pipes or similar cylinder objects for smoking or inhaling any controlled substance in schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act,” the amendment states.
The amendment vote comes one week after the House passed a separate Democrat-sponsored bill that similarly banned the department from funding crack pipes through mental health and substance abuse programs.
The votes signal that President Joe Biden’s congressional allies no longer believe White House claims that the administration never planned to fund crack pipes. Rep. John Moolenaar (R., Mich.), who sponsored the amendment in the HHS funding package, said he was pleased that Democrats have now joined Republicans to hold Biden accountable for his radical policies.
“While most of the media stopped following the crack pipes story and some outlets tried to suppress it, the Free Beacon deserves a lot of credit for continuing to shine a light on this issue,” Moolenaar told the Free Beacon. “Now even Democrats are recognizing this was an abuse of tax dollars.”
* Article from: The Washington Free Beacon
