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White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday denied that taxpayer dollars are being used to fund safe-smoking kits that include crack pipes.
“No federal funding has gone to it,” Psaki said during her daily press briefing. “This policy does not allow for crack pipes to be included.”
HHS SEC. BECERRA SAYS CRACK PIPES WON’T BE DISTRIBUTED USING FEDERAL FUNDS IN SMOKING KITS
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki speaks at a daily press conference in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House on April 29, 2022 in Washington, DC.
(Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images)
“I would just note that this is a bit of a conspiracy theory that’s been spread out there,” she added. “It’s not accurate. There’s important drug treatment programs for people who have been suffering from what we’ve seen as an epidemic across the country. And money is not used for crack pipes.”
Psaki’s response follows a Washington Free Beacon report that found safe smoking kits including crack pipes in facilities in Boston, New York City, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Richmond, Va.
A pipe for crack cocaine use, a needle for heroin use and a pipe for methamphetamine use are shown at the People’s Harm Reduction Alliance, the nation’s largest needle-exchange program, in Seattle, Washington.
(Picture taken April 30, 2015. To match Feature USA-DRUGS/SEATTLE REUTERS/David Ryder)
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The Health and Human Services (HHS) Department said last month following an earlier Free Beacon report that crack pipes would not be included in its $30 million harm-reduction grant program.
Psaki last month claimed the reporting was inaccurate and that crack pipes were never part of the smoking kits, even though the Free Beacon had quoted an HHS spokesman who confirmed that the kits would include pipes for users to smoke crack cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, and “any illicit substance.”
