Public Health Seattle distributes drug kits with pipes, instructions

I never realized how easy it was to get drug paraphernalia on the taxpayer’s dime until I walked into a Public Health Seattle-King County office in downtown Seattle. It was practically a free for all. No hassle, no resistance, and, most disturbingly, no offers of assistance in getting clean.

Public Health Seattle continues to hand out so-called “harm reduction” drug kits, which essentially enable addicts to keep using. These kits can include an assortment of pipes — like “bubbles,” “hammers,” or straight glass pipes—along with tin foil and even instructions on how to fold foil into a makeshift pipe. It’s no surprise to see this paraphernalia littered around homeless encampments all over Seattle and King County.

These kits are distributed through the county’s needle exchange services program. Some parts of the kits are fairly uncontroversial — like the two doses of Naloxone, either in nasal or intramuscular form, which can reverse opioid overdoses. They also include a face mask for rescue breathing and two syringes, which Public Health claims are for the Naloxone. Of course, homeless addicts admit to using them for drug injections as well. But it’s the other parts of the kit that spark real controversy.

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How easy is it to get drug kits from Public Health Seattle?

I walked into the Public Health Seattle needle exchange on 4th and Blanchard in the Belltown neighborhood this past Friday afternoon, and three minutes later, I was fully stocked for a drug-fueled “party.” Yes, it goes by quickly when you’re not asked many questions or offered help with an addiction beyond making it easier to get high.

The door was locked, a sign instructing me to knock and wait for a staffer to let me in. I gave a sheepish, light tap. Within seconds, a plain-looking woman cracked the door open and sized me up. I awkwardly asked if she had any “party kits” to help me get through the weekend. Her response came with no hesitation. “What do you need?” she asked. I awkwardly said, “At least a pipe.” She nodded and led me inside.

Three jars sat on the counter like some twisted candy shop. Except instead of sweets, they held tin foil pipes, cookers to melt drugs for injection, and condoms. No judgment, no questions by design. She walked to the back, reappearing moments later to tell me they were low on pipes—it was Friday, after all. The only options left? “Hammers” and straight glass pipes. I chose the hammer, trying to look the part, even though I was painfully aware I didn’t fit the stereotypical meth-head image. Not that it matters. In this office, anyone and everyone is assumed to be a potential addict.

She handed me a bag like it was some kind of favor: a hammer pipe, a plastic mouthpiece, a pipe screen to hold the drug in place, and a paper clip to scrape residue or stir drugs for a perfect burn. I threw in two condoms and a tin foil pipe for good measure before slinking out, eyes averted, overwhelmed by the shame I felt — not for myself, but for a city and county that willingly hands out the very tools that will destroy lives. They might as well have tied a bow around my future, inevitable overdose.

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Harm reduction at work

The distribution of these drug kits from Public Health Seattle is part of a so-called harm reduction strategy, aimed at keeping addicts alive long enough to eventually seek treatment. But here’s the problem: harm reduction hasn’t been proven to actually move addicts toward recovery. Instead, it enables their addiction by providing the very tools to keep using. That’s why you’ll rarely hear public health officials—or their partners—boast about success stories of addicts quitting. In fact, some have taken it a step further, arguing that we shouldn’t judge addicts or even encourage them to seek treatment at all. It’s a hands-off approach that leaves addicts stuck in the cycle.

At a Seattle City Council meeting last year, Amber Tejada with the Hepatitis Education Project made it clear that she sought to “facilitate and champion” drug use.

“I know it can be a little controversial, but one of the key tenets of harm reduction, that I see, is that we want to be able to facilitate and champion autonomy of people who use drugs,” Tejada said. “And so, you know, there are folks who don’t want to stop using drugs. There are folks for whom abstinence is not something by which they measure their success in life.”

Other harm-reduction kits paid for with county and city taxpayer dollars and distributed by either Public Health Seattle or partner organizations include fentanyl smoking pipes, syringes, boofing supplies (also referred to as “booty-bumping,” a rectal injection of drugs diluted in liquid), tin foil, and more.

One Public Health Seattle kit distributed to addict did not include some of the more controversial drug enabling tools. Instead, it came with Naloxone, an informational card promoting the use of drugs in groups instead of alone, and a copy of the Good Samaritan law, which encourages people to call 911 in cases of emergency without fear of being arrested for illegal use of drugs.

Drug tests, directions to use drugs and alcohol prep pads are also included in the drug kits provided in Seattle. (Photo: Jason Rantz, AM 770 KTTH)

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Do these harm reduction kits actually help solve the drug crisis?

Public Health Seattle-King County claims their kits, which cost taxpayers less than $10 each and are distributed by the Washington State Department of Health, are saving lives. Of the 5,337 kits handed out in 2023, a Public Health spokesperson points to 1,945 self-reported overdose reversals. But here’s what they don’t tell you: how many of these kits — packed with drug paraphernalia like pipes and foil — might have actually led to overdoses? That data isn’t tracked. And honestly, how reliable is the word of a drug addict when it comes to reporting these so-called “successes?”

“Kits do not typically contain foil or pipes but we provide that if requested on an individual basis,” a Public Health Seattle spokesperson explained to “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH. “These tools are part of comprehensive public health efforts to reduce disease, reduce the harms for people with substance use disorder, and increase opportunities to connect people to care.”

That’s pretty misleading. There were tin foil pipes sitting in a jar, free for the taking — I didn’t have to ask. And despite the claims about connecting people to care, no one at the office even attempted to discuss treatment options with me. Sure, the staffer gave me a sympathetic look, but it wasn’t exactly clear what she was feeling sorry for — hopefully, not for my struggle to find clean pipes to smoke out of. The kit did include a flyer with phone numbers for social workers and tips for spotting an overdose, but that was the extent of it.

Getting drug paraphernalia into the hands of those who ask for it isn’t hard. The focus, clearly, is on enabling “safer” drug use, not pushing addicts toward recovery. And it’s not just Public Health distributing these kits. Mutual aid groups and nonprofits working with the county are handing them out, often through mobile services that visit homeless encampments. This is the reality of “harm reduction” in action—where the harm isn’t being reduced, it’s just being prolonged.

Directions that include the foil folding technique are included in the Seattle drug kits. (Photo: Jason Rantz, AM 770 KTTH)

‘All harm, no reduction’ with Public Health Settle drug kits

Activists who work with the homeless think the Public Health Seattle drug kits keep addicts addicted. Andrea Suarez, the founder of We Heart Seattle, which works to get homeless addicts into treatment, knows this all too well.

“We’re now seeing, and have been seeing, the distribution of foil, makeshift pipes, Bic pens to turn into pipes, instructions on how to roll your foil to make it A pipe. All harm, no reduction,” Suarez, a Democrat who is also running for the open state representative in the 43rd legislative district, explained to “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH. “I never see anything that at least includes the 24/7 line to to get a prescription for Suboxone, which is available now through the county as well. And people distribute (harm reduction kits) with smiles on their faces. It breaks my heart, personally, to barely keep somebody alive another day in this way.”

Suarez has been trying to convince drug addicts to get subsidized or privately funded drug treatment. But the kits get in the way of any progress she could make. She doesn’t even think they truly stop the spread of diseases, since the supplies are often shared anyway.

“Anybody that I know who’s in recovery said it was when they couldn’t get their pipe, when they couldn’t find a needle, when they started snorting heroin, was the day they hit their rock bottom,” Suarez explained. “And when you make it harder to get high and easier to get clean, you start to see people reach a different stage of addiction. You start to see them reach contemplation. You’ll never see people reach that stage, as long as we keep making it easier and easier to get high, which is enablement, drug enablement all the way. And think about being a mother, a father, an uncle, a son, a daughter, who said, ‘No, we’re not going to allow you to live with us and give you this enablement.’ Yet our government and our taxpayer dollars do so. So you have furious family members who are like, ‘Please stop enabling my child to eventually die, potentially take that one more hit.’”

The drug kits given out in Seattle help addicts get high and are funded by taxpayers. (Photo: Jason Rantz, AM 770 KTTH)

A sad state of affairs

The ease with which I obtained drug paraphernalia from a government-funded office was nothing short of shocking.

In just minutes, I walked out with everything I needed to continue a dangerous drug habit — all on the taxpayer’s dime. These drug kits are what Public Health Seattle calls “harm reduction,” but it’s clear the real harm is in enabling addiction. Instead of guiding addicts toward recovery, the system is handing them the very tools to sustain their habit. No meaningful intervention, no push for treatment, just a bag of drug gear and a hollow sense of sympathy. The irony is unbearable: a public health office that should be focused on saving lives is instead prolonging the suffering of addicts.

Public Health Seattle and harm reduction advocates claim their approach with drug kits is working, pointing to fewer fatal drug overdoses in 2024 compared to 2023. But these stats are misleading. After years of record-breaking overdose deaths, we’re simply running out of homeless addicts in the deepest stages of their crisis to kill off with taxpayer-funded “help.” Keeping addicts alive just to continue using, without any meaningful effort to get them into treatment, is hardly a victory. Unfortunately, Public Health Seattle and the Democrat lawmakers who fund them seem to have given up on the one thing that could actually make a difference: treatment.

This approach isn’t working, unless the goal is to keep addicts alive long enough to experience their next hit. We need to stop pretending that handing out pipes and foil is the answer to our drug and homelessness crisis. Instead, we should focus on policies that encourage treatment, not enablement. Programs should require a path toward recovery, with mandatory check-ins and immediate access to rehab services. We should also invest in shelters and transitional housing that offer real support, not just a place to crash. As long as we keep making it easier for addicts to get high, we’re not reducing harm—we’re perpetuating it. Seattle and King County must pivot to real solutions, or we’ll continue to lose lives to overdoses and addiction while making life in the area more unbearable.

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