Non-profit provides government-funded meth pipes to L.A. homeless.

Los Angeles Nonprofit Distributes Government-Funded Meth Pipes to Homeless Population

A shocking video has emerged showing workers from the Homeless Health Care Los Angeles nonprofit organization distributing crystal meth pipes to the homeless population living on Skid Row. The workers were allegedly assuming that this would help prevent fatal drug overdoses.

Controversial Distribution

The bodycam footage, reported by local media, shows the workers driving around the neighborhood in a golf cart, distributing the drug paraphernalia. Witnesses have claimed that this only enables addicts.

“They don’t need to be coming down here passing out these glass pipes,” said Tony Anthony, a resident of Skid Row. “If you walk down Skid Row and see the people that are on methamphetamine … and got sores all over their body, their teeth falling out, bumps all over their face, running down the street butt naked, that’s no safety.”

The nonprofit’s executive director has yet to issue a statement, but in a phone interview, the director allegedly said, “free meth pipes are a safety issue and part of a harm-reduction program similar to handing out clean needles.”

Enabling Addiction

However, Andy Bales, President and CEO of Union Rescue Mission, discredited the nonprofit’s method, saying that enabling people to stay in addiction could lead to death. “There is no safe way to use a deadly substance. There is no safe supply of deadly fentanyl when even a little spec of it can cause you to have an overdose death,” he said.

Government Funding

The nonprofit received $5.7 million in government funding in 2016, and three years later, the organization’s budget increased to $11.9 million. The nonprofit reported a total revenue of $12.4 million that same year, of which $7.2 million went toward the organization’s salaries and benefits.

Homelessness Crisis

The Epoch Times reported earlier this year that officials spent $6.5 billion trying to solve the county’s homelessness crisis as the population increased by nearly 70,000 from its 2011 total of 39,000. Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva told the outlet that nonprofit organizations receive county funding toward solving the crisis without clear guidelines on how officials can spend the money — describing what many have called the Homeless Industrial Complex.

At the same time, county officials have created policies — like open drug use without consequences — that invite people nationwide to live on the streets of Los Angeles. “You’re enabling the dependency and normalizing the deviancy. That is a very poor predictor for the future of L.A.,” he said.

Alarming Statistics

Methamphetamine overdose deaths between 2015 to 2019 for people ages 18 to 64 nearly tripled in the U.S., per a study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse reported by the news outlet. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health recorded last year that approximately 36% of some 2,000 transient deaths were caused by drug overdoses between April 2020 and March 2021.

This controversial distribution of government-funded meth pipes has sparked outrage and raised concerns about the effectiveness of harm-reduction programs.