OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
GOP strategists see another opening to politically attack Democrats ahead of the upcoming midterm elections in November, and it is linked to a controversial progressive drug treatment program pitched by the Biden administration.
Adding to a growing list of “off-the-wall woke initiatives,” the New York Post reported, is the Biden administration’s plan to provide “smoking kits” to drug addicts, and Republican political strategists are said to be salivating at the opportunity to include the controversial program in campaign ads for their candidates.
“It’s proof Democrats will embrace any idea, no matter how insane, provided it comes prepackaged, no matter how tenuously, in the rhetoric of racial equity,” GOP strategist Luke Thompson told the paper.
According to The Post:
The pipes were to be distributed in “smoking kits/supplies” by nonprofits and local governments with funding by a grant by the Department of Health and Human Services to drug users in black and other “underserved communities,” the Washington Free Beacon reported. An agency spokesperson told the outlet that the kits would provide pipes for users to smoke crack, crystal methamphetamine, and “any illicit substance,” it reported.
Lefties see the smoking kits as a way to mitigate adverse consequences — homemade pipes can potentially break or release toxic fumes.
“Unsafe smoking practices can lead to open sores, burns and cuts on the lips, and can increase the risk of infection among people who smoke drugs,” HHS spokesman Chris Garrett told The Beacon in a separate report. “Safe smoking kits have been identified to reduce the spread of disease.”
GOP consultant Ryan Girdusky, who told The Post he expects midterm congressional candidates to hammer home the issue as another piece of evidence that President Biden has embraced left-wing extremism, said, “In 100 years America went from a chicken in every pot to a crack pipe in every house.
“They’re going to tell [voters], ‘Sorry about the rampant inflation and insane crimes and broken border, but hey, here are some crack pipes.’ That’s the Biden administration’s response,” Girdusky said.
The Biden administration pushed back on the initial reporting, claiming that it was false and that there was never any intention to ship crack pipes. But the Free Beacon noted that its report was based, in part, on email communications with HHS.
“If Eric Adams had been advocating this I would have said he was in a drug-induced psychosis. What’s next? You going to give them the rocks of crack cocaine to smoke?” Curtis Sliwa, the city’s most recent Republican nominee for mayor, told The Post.
“This will outrage the taxpayers and citizens. It drives them out of their minds to even think of that.”
Meanwhile, a pair of Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation using a title that appears to take a swipe at Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, who admitted to having a crack habit in the past.
Officially called the ‘‘Halting the Use of Narcotics Through Effective Recovery Act of 2022,’’ the legislation is known as the ‘‘HUNTER Act of 2022.”
According to its description, the purpose of the legislation is to “prohibit the use of Federal funds to purchase or support the purchase of, drug paraphernalia.”
“Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Dan Bishop of North Carolina said in an exclusive joint interview with Fox News Digital that the Biden administration got caught ‘red-handed’ trying to fund crack pipes as part of a $30 million grant program and that legislation is needed to stop the ‘ridiculous’ proposal. The White House has denied the grant would fund crack pipes,” the network reported.
Boebert explained the impetus behind the bill.
“Congressman Bishop and I are standing up and saying, heck no,” Boebert noted.
“Our tax dollars should not be funding the death and destruction of crack addicts. Democrats are always putting the American taxpayer last and Republicans just want to give people in need a good job. Democrats want to give them crack pipes,” she added.
The Post noted further that two other left-wing issues high on the agenda of GOP candidates: Dems’ embrace of critical race theory and transgender athletics.
