Biden’s free crack pipes

[AG_PhamD]

There are some parks in some English towns where drug users are a massive issue. Since it's impossible to arrest them all, some of the councils have given up and installed more "needle bins" in those parks, thus alleviating the problem. Now there are a lot less needles lying around.

Here in Boston the exchanges give out portable disposal containers to try to encourage users to not just throw needles on the ground. The needle exchanges try to get people to bring back their used needles to *exchange* them for clean ones. I don’t think they deny people who don’t return needles, but it creates the opportunity to talk about proper disposal.

Our 311 service allows people to call in needle pickup requests or geolocate them on their phone. I suppose this data could be used to help decide where to put in needle disposal bins. I suppose the potential issue with that is people breaking into the boxes if they’re desperate and the boxes are not secure enough, but I imagine they’ve considered that.

I have no idea how long it takes them to clean up the needles or who ultimately does it, but I imagine they make it a priority. I’ve only run into a couple needles and I just disposed of them myself. I usually have some gloves in my bag.

Obviously drug users are not necessarily going to be the most responsible when it comes to policing their needles and loose needles is definitely a legitimate problem, especially for kids and pets. All places, but some places in particular, should be making a greater effort to clean them up and find ways of encouraging or incentivizing proper disposal.

Not to minimize how disgusting used needles are or the psychological trauma accidental needle sticks cause or the current problem at hand, but the chances of catching something like HIV or HCV from a needle that’s been laying on the ground is actually quite low.

 

[Yoused]

There are some parks in some English towns where drug users are a massive issue. Since it's impossible to arrest them all, some of the councils have given up and installed more "needle bins" in those parks, thus alleviating the problem. Now there are a lot less needles lying around.

The obvious solution is to put one's morality in a heavy bin liner and toss it in a nearby dumpster – set aside a large indoor safe space where users can fix and the parks will once again become habitable to average folks.

 

[DT]

That said like Cocaine/Crack and meth are literally one of the worst substances you can put in your body. Of all the major drugs these are really the most detrimental to health. I don’t recommend it.

Oh, well __now__ you post this.

 

[MEJHarrison]

That said like Cocaine/Crack and meth are literally one of the worst substances you can put in your body.

My college roommate always told me that if you can find it (drugs) in nature, it's fine to take. If it was created in a lab, you should avoid it.

I've pretty much ignored that advice, but it always made me laugh. He actually did go on to become a doctor (Dr. Matthew G Poffenroth), so I hope he's not still spreading that advice.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

From "crack pipes" to "critical race theory": GOP's 2022 midterm strategy is overt racism

Without Trump on the ballot, Republican appeals to racism are getting cruder and more blatant

www.salon.com

Backing up this thread.

 

[ronntaylor]

I think the one negative of having syringes available is that they become less valuable to the user and end up being improperly disposed on sidewalks and in parking lots. I know a lot of pharmacists who refuse to sell them to people without Rx’s just for this reason.

IIRC, years ago during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic some of these safe drug kits handed out by advocacy/community groups included bleaching kits to safely reuse syringes. I would imagine it would be relatively easy to include it kits being handed out now. And with several communities adding injection sites, you would think free syringes and/or bleaching kits would be readily available there.

 

[User.168]

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[ronntaylor]

Technically crack pipes is an approved way to spend money, or was until the public outrage.

I've read several stories from 2020 and 2021 (and at least one earlier) about certain community groups not allowing any type of pipes (the vast majority of which would be used to smoke meth and other drugs; of course the GOP and right wing media immediately went with the racist Black people smoking crack theme). And thus far, it doesn't appear that any grantee specifically has pipes in their safe drug/smok kits, if they have that at all. The money can be spent on drug reduction and safety, and doesn't necessarily have to involve safe drug/smoke kits.

 

[ronntaylor]

I am not sure what morality has to do with taking drugs.

I understood it as those opposed to safe drug kits, injection sites, etc. should check their morality as those things are about saving lives and reducing harm.

 

[User.168]

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[User.45]

What I love about public health is, responses to evidence-based risk and cost mitigation initiatives immediately reveal the real motivations behind what is advertised as "fiscal conservatism". Ironically, I am totally aligned with scrutinizing and continuously re-evaluating public spending, but there are lots of things where spending saves tons of money on the long run.

 

[Yoused]

I am not sure what morality has to do with taking drugs.

In the US, we have this "War on Drugs", in which anyone who smokes a doob, snorts a line or dunks the poundcake is a bad person who belongs in prison. Unless, of course, they are white and wealthy. It has been a genuine impediment to dealing with the related issues.



(And naturally we have a large contingent who steadfastly refuse to concede that the war is over, the "drugs" won, and we need to figure out how to deal with the defeat.)

 

[AG_PhamD]

My college roommate always told me that if you can find it (drugs) in nature, it's fine to take. If it was created in a lab, you should avoid it.

I've pretty much ignored that advice, but it always made me laugh. He actually did go on to become a doctor (Dr. Matthew G Poffenroth), so I hope he's not still spreading that advice.

Yeah, indeed terrible advice. It is not an uncommon opinion though. Most people forget cocaine is naturally occurring, granted it took most of human history to actually refine it, which in such quantity obviously creates a very different effect than chewing on some leaves. Morphine is naturally occurring, opium is something like 10-15% morphine. Codeine as well. Obviously opiates are quite addicting and can cause overdose. LSD is synthetic but isn’t really physically dangerous at all. Alcohol is obviously natural, but what is brewing than a very rudimentary laboratory?

In terms of destroying the body from the inside out, cocaine is awful. People who IV cocaine learn pretty quickly the caustic substances they’re injecting will ruin there veins extremely quickly. Not to mention organ damage, destroys teeth, is suffocating the skin thus the sunken face look, etc. Maybe not so surprising since cocaine is a natural insecticide.

Yet people can do heroin for years and not suffer major physical health consequences directly related to the drug. They typically look younger. They just risk ODing faster. I find they often look younger than their age.

 

[Yoused]

Nightshade is totally natural. Ricin comes from the skin of castor beans – totally natural. Beach apples (manicheel) are a natural thing that will mess you up worse than poison oak. Bee venom is natural, as is ergot and for that matter, so is ebola.

Really, I am not entirely sure why "natural" is supposed to be a good thing, as nature spends most her time trying to kill you. I mean, you do make for some pretty decent fertilizer, if'n they do not get you all boxed up or turned to ashes first.

 

[ronntaylor]

So hammering Republicans on this is a bit much given that the current D President bears some culpability.

The GOP put in the most stringent parts of the Crime Bill -- three strikes, mandatory minimums, and stripped judicial discretion in sentencing, especially for youthful offenders. They were totally against the preventative measures (drug courts, youth diversion programs, community policing, etc). They voted overwhelmingly for the Crime Bill, 42-2. Once they loaded it up with shit they ran from it for the final reconciled bill.

Once they retook Congress in 1994, they hampered efforts to reform the most onerous parts; in fact, they ramped up the harshness of the Crime Bill during the subsequent decades. It was a pantheon of Rethugicans from 1993/1994 when the bill was being shaped and debated, till it's ultimate passage. Those names include Bob Dole, Orrin Hatch, Newt Gingrich, and the current Senate Minority (yes, GOP) leader, Mitch McConnell. What have any of them done to lessen the harsh effects of the 1994 Crime Bill in the many years that they controlled Congress? I won't hold my breath waiting for your answer.

 

[ronntaylor]

Read a little

It's oh so difficult to read when one has a propensity to spin, spin, spin.

 

[SuperMatt]

The GOP put in the most stringent parts of the Crime Bill -- three strikes, mandatory minimums, and stripped judicial discretion in sentencing, especially for youthful offenders. They were totally against the preventative measures (drug courts, youth diversion programs, community policing, etc). They voted overwhelmingly for the Crime Bill, 42-2. Once they loaded it up with shit they ran from it for the final reconciled bill.

Once they retook Congress in 1994, they hampered efforts to reform the most onerous parts; in fact, they ramped up the harshness of the Crime Bill during the subsequent decades. It was a pantheon of Rethugicans from 1993/1994 when the bill was being shaped and debated, till it's ultimate passage. Those names include Bob Dole, Orrin Hatch, Newt Gingrich, and the current Senate Minority (yes, GOP) leader, Mitch McConnell. What have any of them done to lessen the harsh effects of the 1994 Crime Bill in the many years that they controlled Congress? I won't hold my breath waiting for your answer.

It would be nice if Republicans would own up to their roles occasionally. Instead, we get distractions.

Trump uses bigotry against Mexicans and Muslims to stoke fear as a campaign strategy. GOP response? Biden said something racist once in 1978!

Trump separates kids from parents and puts them in cages. GOP response? Obama built the cages!

They will NEVER own their . They voted for a candidate that openly espoused bigotry. There were no dog whistles. Everybody heard it, and they all went and eagerly voted for him. Sorry, nobody that voted for him can walk away from that vote as if they didn’t know… because he never hid his attacks on minorities, whether religious or racial.

 

[User.45]

It's oh so difficult to read when one has a propensity to spin, spin, spin.

It’s so tiresome. Fiscal conservatives in opposition only.

 

[Deleted member 215]

I think the most disappointing aspect of this was the way that the White House completely caved and threw their own policy under the bus.

Once again the right-wing narrative is allowed to dominate, the Democrats/White House play defense and play into the narrative, and won't own harm reduction policies. I don't know whether these harm reduction policies work, but it would be nice if Democrats could own the policies they supposedly support and stop playing defense and throwing their policies under the bus when the typical GOP racist bullshit narrative comes to light.