I never realized how easy it was to get drug paraphernalia on the taxpayer’s dime until I walked into a Public Health Seattle-King County office in downtown Seattle. It was practically a free for all. No hassle, no resistance, and, most disturbingly, no offers of assistance in getting clean.
Public Health Seattle continues to hand out so-called “harm reduction” drug kits, which essentially enable addicts to keep using. These kits can include an assortment of pipes — like “bubbles,” “hammers,” or straight glass pipes—along with tin foil and even instructions on how to fold foil into a makeshift pipe. It’s no surprise to see this paraphernalia littered around homeless encampments all over Seattle and King County.
These kits are distributed through the county’s needle exchange services program. Some parts of the kits are fairly uncontroversial — like the two doses of Naloxone, either in nasal or intramuscular form, which can reverse opioid overdoses. They also include a face mask for rescue breathing and two syringes, which Public Health claims are for the Naloxone. Of course, homeless addicts admit to using them for drug injections as well. But it’s the other parts of the kit that spark real controversy…