Stop calling them "free" crack pipes; that's an insult to the hard working Americans being forced to fund this disastrous program. $30 million has been approved to fund a program that provides drug addicts with clean equipment to get high. Our health was never their concern.
There is absolutely no logical explanation for President Joe Biden’s corrupt administration to be funding $30 million worth of taxpayer-funded clean crack pipes. The issue of drug addiction is far more complicated than many of us wish to discuss, but having the federal government acting as an enabler is doing nothing to resolve the issue or reduce drug addiction.
Imagine you’re a recovering drug addict who just landed your first job after getting back on your feet. You’re working long hours below the pay you think you deserve, but you’re doing so as part of your recovery efforts. One day, you turn on CNN and see Jake Tapper applauding the Biden administration’s funding for clean crack pipes. How might this make you feel?
You may feel outraged that the federal government is enabling drug addiction. You know better than anyone that the path to recovery is not easy, though it is necessary. This is the sentiment many Americans are expressing over Biden’s new spending venture. We all agree that preventing drug overdoses and reducing addiction are goals that are beneficial to society. Whether or not it’s the role of government to progress these goals is part of a much larger debate. However, it’s completely evident that offering struggling drug addicts with clean instruments to “safely” get high is not part of the solution.
Advocates for this spending disaster argue that it’s harm reduction. It prevents addicts from spreading viruses and diseases because they will have access to sanitized tools to get high. Harm reduction? Putting crack pipes in the hands of crack addicts is being marketed as harm reduction? I couldn’t disagree more. If we were interested in reducing harm in society, we would end the war on drugs and allow struggling addicts to seek the proper treatment without fear of gaining a criminal record in the process.
Helping addicts get high literally solves nothing. I’m not even sure it qualifies as “virtue signaling” because it’s not a proper response to any of the drug-related issues our nation is facing. Last year, more than 100,000 people died from drug-related overdoses. This is the highest death count related to overdose deaths recorded in our nation’s history. Harm reduction would absolutely involve addiction reduction. In no rational plan proposed is there a rationale to further enable drug addicts.
Money is not infinite. I have seen many people argue that it’s “only $30 million.” I don’t know how many of you were raised, but $30 million is a lot of money to be wasting on a clean crack pipe program. Would this $30 million not have been better spent on recovery programs for struggling crack addicts? Shouldn’t we argue that these efforts could be privately funded if this is a program that the people demand?
Drug addiction is complicated. Over the past year alone, I have lost three people close to me who fell victim to their habits. Not once did I consider offering them clean crack pipes. Instead, I spoke on my own journey to recovery. While many may not know this, I am a recovered alcoholic. I drank rather heavily for about six years, and I am currently over three and a half years sober. My path to recovery was anything but easy, but it wouldn’t have been made easier by the federal government finding cleaner ways for me to get drunk.
Addressing drug abuse is far more complicated. Addicts want to have to get sober if they are going to successfully recover. You can’t force an addict into rehab and expect that they will recover once their three months are up. They may not have had the ability to get high while in rehab, but what’s stopping them from using once they’re released?
I don’t know what the solution is. If I did, I would have more answers and fewer question. The truth is, nobody knows what the right solution is because addiction rewires our brains and turns us into people we’re not. We become dangerous to the people around us.
If the government was actually concerned with harm reduction, they would more proactively combat drug addiction. They wouldn’t consider offering taxpayer-funded clean crack pipes as a solution. The diseases and viruses spread from reusing dirty equipment certainly doesn’t equate to more than 100,000 drug-related overdoses.
I’m unsure who the Biden administration is pandering to with this spending venture. Drug addiction destroys families. It tears people apart and drives family and friends away from the user. Families often suffer financially when somebody close is addicted to drugs. Habits aren’t cheap, but at least the federal government has found a way to make it all the more affordable.
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