Distribution of drug paraphernalia | City Journal

On 7th Street in northwest Washington, DC, within sight of a children's playground, stands a vending machine sponsored by a group called HIPS and the city's health department. The machine does not offer soda or candy. Instead, it dispenses syringes and other drug paraphernalia.

According to the instructions on the machine, a special code is required to access these products, but after punching in a few numbers, I was the proud owner of a taxpayer-funded HIPS-branded “Safer Rectal Drug Administration Kit” or “Booty Bumping/Boofing Kit.”

A QR code on the package took me to a page describing the rectal administration process. The document emphasizes that booty bumping is “usually quick and easy” and “provides a quick kick and high that is usually stronger than smoking.” It also reminds users to “poop beforehand if you haven't done so recently so the drugs are absorbed.”

These machines are the latest experiment being conducted in the name of “harm reduction.” The movement's advocates once supported one-for-one exchanges of dirty and clean needles to stop the spread of diseases like HIV and tried to connect severely addicted people with social workers. Today, they support the free distribution of meth pipes, booty-bumping kits, and other drug paraphernalia to almost anyone who asks. Instead of reducing harm or providing treatment, the movement's advocates are subsidizing addiction with taxpayer dollars.

Local, state and federal agencies support harm reduction. For example, the Washington, DC government's request for proposals for the vending machine project states that the project's $150,000 grant is tied to federal funding. The document calls on applicants to “center the voices of drug users” and work with “informal leaders” of that “community” — which presumably includes drug dealers — to “support continuous quality improvement.” The request emphasizes that the program is based on the city's commitment to “health equity” and “social justice.”

Official reports or local media coverage of these vending machines mostly focus on the provision of NARCAN (an opioid overdose spray that is critical for preventing or reversing overdoses) and fentanyl test strips. Most of these announcements downplay or ignore the distribution of syringes and “drug snorting kits.” Although DC did not disclose that its vending machines contain pipes for crack or other drugs, HIPS touts that it provided over 5,000 “Safer Smoking Kits” in the past year, a type of package that typically includes pipes. I have not found any materials mentioning the vending machines' booty bumping kits.

The vending machine model has spread like wildfire. In 2017, Nevada became the first state to install a syringe vending machine. After the pandemic, harm reduction machines, often dispensing more than just Narcan or needles, began popping up in cities across the country: Cincinnati in 2021, Cleveland and Detroit in 2022, and New York City and Milwaukee in 2023. This year, Anne Arundel County in Maryland installed seven of these machines, and New York state installed several more. A representative for Shaffer Distributing estimated last year that the company had sold 200 or more harm reduction machines, which have been installed everywhere from public libraries to post offices to college campuses.

Cities are being flooded with paraphernalia. One addict in New York complained that you “can't even sell” the portions from the vending machines because there are existing “programs that give you all the stuff” for free. In Vancouver, drug treatment workers complained that children were in possession of medical opioids that were first dispensed from the city's vending machines. Some vending machines carry condoms, lubricants and feminine hygiene products. The machines in Las Vegas, for example, are stocked with “hormone injection kits” for transgender people and bodybuilders.

Most Americans are unaware of the progress of the harm reduction movement and the ways taxpayers support drug abuse. Today's governments give drug addicts special priority in housing and other programs, and some provide more resources to addicts than to those who have remained clean. Just a few years ago, it would have been unthinkable that taxpayer-funded drugs would be distributed through vending machines. Today, it is commonplace.

Photo: Rapeepong Puttakumwong / Moment via Getty Images