Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan's (D.) administration spearheaded the awarding of millions of dollars in grants and contracts to a "harm reduction" group that supplies "booty bumping" kits to drug users to help them safely ingest drugs through "the butthole."
The controversial funding was part of a $100 million grant—announced by Flanagan and Gov. Tim Walz—for "Minnesotans facing homelessness," including so-called harm reduction for drug users. In the announcement, Flanagan, now running for Senate, said that "These grants will ensure that everyone can access the supports they need to find and secure safe, stable housing."
The administration highlighted grants to Southside Harm Reduction Services, a nonprofit that "promotes the health and wellbeing of drug users" through "harm reduction" supplies like syringes, sterile water, and drug cookers to help junkies get high "safely."
A key "harm reduction" offering from Southside is free lube and other supplies to help users in the "booty bumping" scene to ingest all kinds of drugs—including heroin, meth, and ketamine—"through the rectum (anus, butthole)." Southside is also required by the state of Minnesota to give the junkies voter registration materials.
Southside touts the booty bumping kits, also known as "boofing" kits, in social media posts and on its website as safer methods to ingest some drugs and an efficient way to get high. Booty bumping helps drugs "reach the bloodstream quickly," allowing practitioners to "reach a high faster than some other routes of administration," Southside Harm Reduction says.
Southside Harm Reduction offers other instructions.
"Try to poop before. This is so your drugs are absorbed better," Southside Harm Reduction Services advises in a pamphlet contained in the kits. "Stand, squat, or lay on your side in a comfortable position. It never hurts to have a boofing buddy!"
Boofing is controversial among harm reduction advocates. Because the drugs bypass the digestive system and enter the bloodstream quickly, it can increase the likelihood of fatal overdoses.
The state of Minnesota has awarded $7.9 million in grants and contracts to Southside Harm Reduction Services since 2023, according to state spending records. The administration awarded $432,000 to Southside in 2024 to provide "low-barrier access" to harm reduction supplies. The Washington Free Beacon first reported on the grants during Walz's failed vice presidential run.
The administration awarded a $2.5 million contract to Southside Harm Reduction on Oct. 1, 2025, to provide and stock "outdoor vending machines" that operate "24/7" and dispense Narcan, used to reverse fentanyl overdoses, "safer use" supplies, and "hygiene items." The contract does not state whether those machines include the booty bumping kits, though those are often referred to in "harm reduction" literature as "safer use supplies."
Flanagan has faced intense scrutiny on the campaign trail over her administration’s wasteful spending and failure to prevent fraud in its social services contracts. Flanagan and Walz awarded hundreds of millions of dollars to Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit group that orchestrated a kickback scheme with dozens of Somali nationals to defraud a state-funded food distribution program.
"This historic fraud happened under her watch, and suddenly, she's looking out for Medicaid and SNAP? Sell it to someone else, Peggy," Flanagan's GOP opponent Michele Tafoya said at a debate last week.
Southside Harm Reduction Services promotes other questionable drug practices, such as "slamming," a popular practice in the gay community in which users inject methamphetamine while having sex. "If you like slamming it makes a lot of sense to learn how to do it well. This section explains where to inject, the injecting process and technique, and all of the equipment you will need," according to a brochure that Southside links to on its website. The brochure's cover prominently displays a naked, muscular man holding a giant syringe.
