HHS to fund racially equitable crack pipe distribution

[Dr.3D]

So what's next? Is the government going to provide safe crack to smoke in those pipes?

 

[pcosmar]

I would have thought they would have unloaded all that Coke from Iran/Contra by now.

 

[Mach]

Talk about progressive eugenics.

 

[acptulsa]

Talk about progressive eugenics.

At least it's equitable progressive eugenics.

 

[69360]

White crackhead lives matter too

 

[Occam's Banana]

Ben Swann: Crack Pipes!

Ben just launched this "Truth in A Minute" video series, this is the first one!

https://www.sovren.media/video/bide...n-dollars-for-crack-pipes-to-addicts-743.html

I hope he keeps dropping them on the daily!

//

 

[pcosmar]

Never done it..

But being a homeless outlaw in 1987 LA,,I met and even hung with a few. (good local intel)

When I did Coke,,it was direct injection,,and I liked Coke.

Crack was worse from my observations.

 

[Intrepid]

Back in my early adult years I lived on the streets and went around breaking noses and shoving my boot up people's ass. If you looked at me sideways I'd shove a boot up your ass. Give me some smartass remark? Broken nose and boot in your ass. Hesitate to give me whatever you're eating? Boot in the ass. Occasionally the cops would come around to try and give me some grief and I would line them up and shove a boot in their ass one by one. Then I would smoke a little crack, smile, catch a little shut-eye, greet the morning sunrise and do it all again.

Good times.

 

[Occam's Banana]

 

[Occam's Banana]

A few days later and the mockery and ridicule was just too much for them to bear (though apparently, needles for heroin will still be eligible for racially equitable distribution):

 

[kahless]

On the surface it sounds totally ridiculous but if you are trying to reduce government healthcare expenditures it actually makes sense in the long run. Since we already live under a form of Socialism with taxation that is not going away any time soon, the less people on Medicaid that have Hepatitis A, B, HIV and whatever other medical issues they are trying to avoid the better since it reduces costs long term and lowers taxes.

No, the federal government isn’t spending $30 million on ‘crack pipes’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/02/09/safe-smoke-kit-crack-pipe-fact-check/

In a first-of-its-kind federal grant to be distributed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a branch of HHS, dozens of organizations across the country would be able to spend the money over three years on a preapproved list of resources, including referrals to treatment, infectious-disease testing kits, condoms, and vaccinations for hepatitis A and B.

Also on the list: “safe smoking kits.” Typically, such kits include a rubber mouthpiece to prevent cuts and burns, brass screens to filter contaminants and disinfectant wipes, according to Harm Reduction International.

Favaro, whose program does not distribute the “safe smoking kits” approved by HHS, said groups that provide kits typically don’t include a glass pipe as it is expensive relative to providing the rubber mouthpiece. Clean glass pipes are intended to curb sharing pipes and spreading oral infections or injecting with needles, a riskier method of doing drugs.

....................
“The safe smoking kit may contain alcohol swabs, lip balm, other materials to promote hygiene and reduce the transmission of diseases like HIV and hepatitis.”

........
Mike Pence, as governor of Indiana, oversaw in 2015 the worst HIV outbreak in the state’s history, which critics blamed in part on Pence’s opposition to authorizing a needle exchange program.

For those in the harm reduction world, this rhetoric isn’t new, but it’s coming at a terrible time when overdoses are soaring.

“It doesn’t surprise me someone ran with those talking points,” said Jennifer Plumb, the founder and medical director of Utah Naloxone. Her group, which applied for the grant, would supply clean needles and the overdose antidote throughout her state. Despite hesitancy around harm reduction, Plumb said she’s seen firsthand how effective it is at mitigating the worst repercussions of the drug crisis.

More than 7,000 overdoses have been reversed in over six years with the naloxone her group distributes, Plumb said. When naysayers have criticized her group’s work, Plumb has invited them to speak to drug users.

Also on the list: “safe smoking kits.” Typically, such kits include a rubber mouthpiece to prevent cuts and burns, brass screens to filter contaminants and disinfectant wipes, according to Harm Reduction International.
https://www.hri.global/files/2019/04/28/harm-reduction-stimulants-coact.pdf

By using safer equipment, people who smoke drugs can avoid the emergence of lesions, burns and cuts to the lips and mouth that are associated with a risk of infection and hepatitis C transmission.

Sadly the right is more concerned about gaming one up on the Dems in the news cycle rather than solutions. Saving lives, reducing infection and reducing the long term tax burden through these programs be damned.

 

[Occam's Banana]

Sadly the right is more concerned about gaming one up on the Dems in the news cycle rather than solutions. Saving lives, reducing infection and reducing the long term tax burden through these programs be damned.

Democrats don't give a shit about any of those things.

They care about shoveling as much as they can of other peoples' money to their cronies and favored special interests. (Ditto for Republicans.)

They should be mercilessly mocked and derided for things like this at every opportunity.

 

[kahless]

Democrats don't give a shit about any of those things.

They care about shoveling as much as they can of other peoples' money to their cronies and favored special interests. (Ditto for Republicans.)

They should be mercilessly mocked and derided for things like this at every opportunity.

You are right that none of these people care about anything other than their special interests. But it does no good to mock a program that could potentially reduce Medicaid costs just to game one up on low information voters.

One patient with HIV, Hepatitis could be anywhere from thousands, to 50k to a million a year in Medicaid payments for just one individual. Think about that. Who ends up paying for Medicaid, the taxpayers. Spending a little to reduce the risk of infection while getting these people off the stuff and back to work is far better solution to reduce Medicaid costs.

 

[Occam's Banana]

You are right that none of these people care about anything other than their special interests. But it does no good to mock a program that could potentially reduce Medicaid costs just to game one up on low information voters.

One patient with HIV, Hepatitis could be anywhere from thousands, to 50k to a million a year in Medicaid payments for just one individual. Think about that. Who ends up paying for Medicaid, the taxpayers. Spending a little to reduce the risk of infection while getting these people off the stuff and back to work is far better solution to reduce Medicaid costs.

Nothing is going to be reduced. Any money they don't waste on one thing will be wasted on another. Any money they allegedly "save" on Medicare will just be spent on something else (and they'll probably even take the opportunity to justify increasing spending even further, to boot).

And I don't give a damn about the credulity of voters, "low-information" or otherwise. I care about mocking the Emperor because he has no clothes. I don't care at all about the fools who "ooh" and "aah" over his invisible finery. They don't have anything to do with anything.

 

[acptulsa]

You are right that none of these people care about anything other than their special interests. But it does no good to mock a program that could potentially reduce Medicaid costs just to game one up on low information voters.

One patient with HIV, Hepatitis could be anywhere from thousands, to 50k to a million a year in Medicaid payments for just one individual. Think about that. Who ends up paying for Medicaid, the taxpayers. Spending a little to reduce the risk of infection while getting these people off the stuff and back to work is far better solution to reduce Medicaid costs.

Is this an argument for crack pipes and hypos? Or yet another sound argument against Medicare?

 

[kahless]

Nothing is going to be reduced. Any money they don't waste on one thing will be wasted on another. Any money they allegedly "save" on Medicare will just be spent on something else (and they'll probably even take the opportunity to justify increasing spending even further, to boot).

So don't do anything to reduce costs? Let it collapse? Well, if the point is to spend to the point of collapse then why even oppose it?

And I don't give a damn about the credulity of voters, "low-information" or otherwise. They don't have anything to do with anything.

The Republicans know damn well they were not buying crack pipes and rather setting the narrative otherwise to appeal to low information voters that know will buy into it. Something they hope these people will remember come November be damned saving peoples lives with Naloxone and harm reduction prevention to prevent HIV, Hepatitis, etc which would reduce Medicaid costs long term.

 

[kahless]

Is this an argument for crack pipes and hypos? Or yet another sound argument against Medicare?

I know on the surface it sounds ridiculous but if you are trying to keep Medicaid and Medicare afloat without continual taxpayer increases to support those with HIV, Hepatitis, etc, it actually makes sense.

You dump Medicaid or Medicare then you end up with a new problem. Costs are so high the people can't afford it while Hospitals would try as they have in the past pickup the burden anyway. They end up financially overwhelmed and unavailable for people that can afford it and have insurance.

 

[Occam's Banana]

I'mma go listen to Joe Rogan's show - he had Dave Smith on today.

 

[dannno]

No, the federal government isn’t spending $30 million on ‘crack pipes’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/02/09/safe-smoke-kit-crack-pipe-fact-check/




Sadly the right is more concerned about gaming one up on the Dems in the news cycle rather than solutions. Saving lives, reducing infection and reducing the long term tax burden through these programs be damned.

Man, you are really gullible. Read the article in the OP. If nobody said anything, they would have definitely funded crack pipes. They still are probably going to fund crack pipes, even though they claim otherwise. They lie all the time, what makes you think this time they are telling the truth?

I actually don’t have a big issue with the program, besides the fact they are giving minorities drug paraphernalia that they will later go to prison for… how about stop sending them to prison? How about not forcing opiate addicts to buy fentanyl, because that’s the only thing available on the streets? It’s fucking stupid.

At the end of the day, this program helps streamline the path for minorities to end up in prison for drug possession.

Happy black history month. Crack Pipes Matter.

 

[acptulsa]

You dump Medicaid or Medicare then you end up with a new problem.

You consider lower health care costs a problem?

Remember, providers raised their charges on Medicare patients specifically so they could afford the staff needed to do the reams and reams of paperwork, then congress passed a law saying Medicare would only pay as much as they charged cash customers. And that is how it became unaffordable.