New York City Democrats are deploying vending machines to dispense crack pipes and other drug paraphernalia.
Health commissioner Ashwin Vasan revealed the machine this week, one of four to be set in the city's worst neighborhoods for drug use. It contains Narcan and drug-test strips,"safe-smoking" pipes, condoms, nicotine gum, lip balm, and tampons. He added that future machines may include syringes.
"Every three hours, we’re losing a New Yorker [to drugs]," Vasan said. "And it looks like 2022 is on track to be our highest year ever in overdoses."
The machines will have "safer sniffing" and "safer smoking" kits. Users won't have to purchase the items but just enter their zip code to receive them for free.
A Washington Free Beacon investigation last year found that despite the Biden administration claiming a multimillion-dollar harm reduction program doesn't spend taxpayer dollars on drug paraphernalia, several Democratic cities hand out crack pipes. Every organization the Free Beacon visited, including in Boston, New York City, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Richmond, included crack pipes in their kits.
A February 2022 Free Beacon report found that a $30 million harm-reduction program would fund the distribution of "safe-smoking kits," which generally include crack pipes.
New York City saw 2,668 drug deaths in 2021, and while 2022 numbers aren't released yet, officials expect it to break the previous record.