Tucker Carlson slammed the Biden administration over its new $30 million grant program to reduce substance abuse to underserved communitie...
Tucker Carlson slammed the Biden administration over its new $30 million grant program to reduce substance abuse to underserved communities, claiming the government would be giving out 'free crack pipes to black people.'
Although the administration has clarified that they're distributing safe smoking kits, not crack pipes, Carlson doubled down on his claims Tuesday night.
'The Biden administration is promoting drug addiction,' he said. 'They've been caught doing it and now they're denying it.'
Carlson's fellow Fox host Sean Hannity also blasted the administrations plan on Wednesday night in an interview with U.S. Senator John Kennedy, of Louisiana, who called the plan 'stupidity.'
'There's no safe way to use crack cocaine and meth. Sooner of later it kills you. Why aren't we spending this money to get people off the illicit drugs,' Kennedy said.
Tucker Carlson mocked the Biden administration's plan to distribute safe smoking kits to underserved communities on his show Tuesday night
Joe Biden's Health and Human Services Department said that the kits will serve to limit the risk of infection drug users face and will prioritize underserved communities
A spokesperson for Health and Human Services told the Washington Free Beacon that included in these kits could be pipes for users to smoke substances like crack cocaine and crystal methamphetamine, or 'any illicit substance.'
HHS said that the kits will serve to limit the risk of infection - typically users smoke out of glass pipes which can lead to cuts and sores that become infected with diseases like Hepatitis-C.
The kits include a rubber mouthpiece to prevent cuts and burns, brass screens to filter contaminants and disinfectant wipes.
Applicants for the program get priority if they serve 'underserved communities,' such as African Americans or Native Americans, or LGBTQ people.
The grant program lasts three years and includes 25 awards of up to $400,000.
U.S. Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Wednesday that the Beacon's story was inaccurate and that crack pipes were never involved in the government's kits.
It came after Carlson mocked the idea on Tuesday night.
'You may recall that on his first day in office more than a year ago, the new president explained that equity will require determination and creativity,' Carlson told his viewers.
'This week he proved that is true. Joe Biden's latest idea is to pay black people to smoke more crack.'
The Fox News host said that progressive groups, many of them funded by George Soros's institutions, were encouraging Biden's plan, and joked that the president's 52-year-old son - who had a highly-publicized crack addiction - exemplified the 'crack gap'.
Hunter Biden, in his memoir, writes that he first bought crack cocaine at age 18.
The Fox News host also poked fun at Hunter Biden's past addiction and said the president was doing little to fight the opioid crisis because victims were 'mostly white'
Hunter Biden, pictured with his father in 2016, has battled a crack cocaine addiction since he was 18. He was reportedly clean of his addiction by 2019
Carlson then suggested that the president was turning a blind eye to the opioid crisis because the victims were 'mostly white.'
'Their deaths had nothing to do with the equity agenda. In fact, their deaths may have helped the equity agenda by changing the demographics of the country in a way that benefits the Democratic Party. So as far as the Biden Administration is concerned, it's not a bad trend.'
Carlson also took aim at San Francisco's open heroin market on Tuesday, bashing the Democratic city for facilitating an area where addicts could openly buy and use drugs in a safe location.
He interviewed local mother Jacqui Berlinn, of Mothers Against Drug Deaths, who told him that such a facility would only keep addicts liker son 'chained to addiction.'
'[Mayor London] Breed's policies and the policies in San Francisco give him everything that he needs to stay addicted,' she told Carlson.
'They give him the plastic needles and give him the foil...'[M]y hopes were dashed and even talking to my son, he said it just looks like more of the same, kind of makes him feel hopeless.'
Carlson also took aim at San Francisco's open heroin market as ee interviewed local mother Jacqui Berlinn, of Mothers Against Drug Deaths, who told him that such a facility would only keep addicts liker son 'chained to addiction'
There were an estimated 100,306 drug overdose deaths in the 12-month period ending in April 2021, according to the CDC, a 28.5 per cent increase from just the year prior. Three-quarters of those deaths involved opioids, many of them being synthetic opioids, such as methamphetamine or fentanyl.
Cities like San Francisco and Seattle have experimented with their own crack pipe kit distribution programs. Others have backed away from such plans.
Louisville, Ky. allowed convenience stores to sell drug kits, before later banning them from doing so.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department (DOJ) signaled Monday it may allow 'safe injection sites' to open up across the U.S. Such sites would be safe havens where drug users could use heroin and other narcotics freely without risking arrest in an environment monitored by health professionals.
The DOJ told the Associated Press it was 'evaluating' such facilities and talking to regulators about the 'appropriate guardrails.' The DOJ under the Trump administration had prosecutors who fought aggressively against a plan to open safe consumption sites in Philadelphia.
'Although we cannot comment on pending litigation, the Department is evaluating supervised consumption sites, including discussions with state and local regulators about appropriate guardrails for such sites, as part of an overall approach to harm reduction and public safety,' the agency said in a statement Friday to the AP.
A divided appeals court last year ruled that safe injection sites would violate a 1980s-era drug law aimed at 'crackhouses.' The Supreme Court in October declined to take up the case.
About six weeks later, the first officially authorized safe injection sites opened in New York City. The two facilities — which the city calls 'overdose prevention centers' — provide a monitored place for drug users to partake, with staffers and supplies on hand to reverse overdoses.
The New York City sites so far have intervened in more than 110 overdoses among more than 500 users, many of whom have made multiple visits, according to OnPoint NYC, the organization running them.
However, critics say they are only encouraging drug use and burdening the surrounding communities.
'Is this a cruel joke? Drug overdose deaths are at their highest recorded levels. The Biden administration should focus on stopping traffickers instead of creating more demand for their product,' Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., wrote on Twitter of the Justice Department's consideration of the facilities.
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