"Safe Smoking Kit": An Oxymoron

At the risk of sounding unsympathetic to the plight of addicts, I don’t want one dime of my tax dollars going to the latest cockamamie Biden administration scheme: “Safe smoking kits” for meth and crackheads.

Whether or not pipes are included.

You’ve heard the noise this week. The Washington Free Beacon reported that the Department of Health and Human Services was spending $30 million of Covid money on grants to private organizations to pass out “safe smoking kits” - complete with crack pipes - to addicts.

According to multiple sources, those kits typically include alcohol wipes, lip balm, rubber mouthpieces, brass filters, wooden push sticks and glass pipes.

You know, doodads to make getting high more pleasant and sanitary.

When the media seized on the crack-pipe angle, Biden’s mouthpiece, Jen Psaki, indignantly denied that the administration ever intended federal dollars to go for pipes. These are nothing more than pipeless little goody bags for the strung-out set she said.

I hesitate to point this out, but there is no safe way to smoke crack or meth. Those horrific drugs turn users into hollow-eyed zombies who eventually die. Giving them Chapstick isn’t going to save them from a death spiral. They need help, not drug paraphernalia.

Ironic, isn’t it, that every onerous restriction that came out of Washington since the beginning of the pandemic was supposedly designed to keep Americans healthy.

Now the government is ready to spend millions to help addicts ruin their health.

This is insane.

If a member of your family were a hopeless alcoholic you wouldn’t give them a flask, a cocktail shaker or a little jar of maraschino cherries to make their drinks taste better.

You’d do everything in your power to get them to quit. 

That’s exactly what the U.S. government should be doing.

According to a report this week on CNN, Mexico has surpassed China as the “dominant source” of fentanyl and synthetic opioids coming into the country.

Here’s a thought: Why not take that $30 million and spend it to secure the border to choke off the supply of drugs?

We know that border security is antithetical to the Biden administration, so that won’t happen. But until it does, we’ll continue to bury about 100,000 Americans a year. Drug addiction and overdoses are a scourge on our nation. They cause misery and heartache and crime.

The problem isn’t chapped lips. It’s the damn drugs.