{"id":1525461,"date":"2022-06-22T05:05:24","date_gmt":"2022-06-22T09:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1525461"},"modified":"2022-06-22T05:05:26","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T09:05:26","slug":"the-biden-admin-says-it-never-planned-to-fund-crack-pipes-house-democrats-are-set-to-ban-funding-anyway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-biden-admin-says-it-never-planned-to-fund-crack-pipes-house-democrats-are-set-to-ban-funding-anyway\/","title":{"rendered":"The Biden Admin Says It Never Planned To Fund Crack Pipes. House Democrats Are Set To Ban Funding Anyway."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">38<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-biden-admin-says-it-never-planned-to-fund-crack-pipes-house-democrats-are-set-to-ban-funding-anyway%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1525461&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>The Democrat-controlled House is set to pass a bill Wednesday that bans the Biden administration from funding crack pipe distribution through mental health and substance abuse programs.<\/p>\n<p>The Democrat-sponsored bill, which reauthorizes several mental health programs that were set to expire this year, includes a measure that ensures the federal funds are not used to &#8220;purchase, procure, or distribute pipes or cylindrical objects intended to be used to smoke or inhale illegal scheduled substances.&#8221; This language appears to cover crack pipes and meth pipes\u2014drug paraphernalia the Biden administration was poised to fund through its $30 million harm reduction program, the <em>Washington\u00a0Free Beacon<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/biden-administration\/yes-safe-smoking-kits-include-free-crack-pipes-we-know-because-we-got-them\/\">reported<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/biden-administration\/biden-admin-to-fund-crack-pipe-distribution-to-advance-racial-equity\/\">earlier this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The bill, which passed unanimously out of committee, specifically bars the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration\u2014the same agency that oversees the White House&#8217;s controversial harm reduction program\u2014from using funds allocated for substance abuse and mental health programs to fund crack pipe distribution. It is scheduled to get a vote on the House floor on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n<p>It is unclear why Democrats believe it is necessary to ban funding for the drug paraphernalia, given Biden&#8217;s denial that his administration ever had plans to fund crack pipe distribution. The White House said the agency would not fund &#8220;smoking kits&#8221; that contain crack pipes, so the measure may suggest President Joe Biden&#8217;s congressional allies doubt the administration&#8217;s claims. Following the <em>Free Beacon<\/em> report, Republicans <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/biden-administration\/republican-senators-move-to-bar-federal-funds-for-crack-paraphernalia\/\">introduced<\/a> several bills to ensure federal funds do not go toward crack pipes but were unable to advance legislation.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>New York Times\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/02\/21\/us\/politics\/biden-harm-reduction-crack-pipes.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a>\u00a0that the &#8220;uproar&#8221; over crack pipes &#8220;derailed&#8221; the Biden administration&#8217;s drug policy. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration later <a href=\"https:\/\/www.samhsa.gov\/grants\/awards\/2022\/SP-22-001\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">listed<\/a> a notice at the top of its harm reduction grant webpage that states, &#8220;No federal funding is used directly or through subsequent reimbursement of grantees to purchase pipes in safer smoking kits.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Harm reduction organizations across the country aim to make drug use safer for abusers, rather than rehabilitating those abusers. Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R., N.D.), a member of the committee that passed the bill, said the provision distances Congress from the Biden administration&#8217;s radical approach to drug policy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Stopping the Biden administration from using taxpayer dollars to buy crack pipes is a win for those of us working on commonsense criminal justice reform,&#8221; Armstrong told the <em>Free Beacon<\/em>. &#8220;Handing them out did nothing to make our communities safer or help people struggling with addiction and mental health.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Syringe exchange programs are supported by a majority of state governments, but smoking kits are a less common approach to harm reduction. Crack pipe distribution efforts are prominent in deep-blue cities such as San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Boston, and Baltimore.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Frank Pallone (D., N.J.), who as the head of the House Energy and Commerce Committee sponsored the bill, did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>The Restoring Hope for Mental Health and Well-Being Act of 2022 will also reauthorize programs for mental disorder screenings, suicide prevention, and mental health awareness for children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Democrat-controlled House is set to pass a bill Wednesday that bans the Biden administration from funding crack pipe distribution through mental health and substance abuse programs. The Democrat-sponsored bill,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":193,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1525461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/193"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1525461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1525461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1525461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1525461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}