Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

But the crack pipe thing was completely made up.

And that criticism of the supreme court thing depends on the belief that ability can be narrowed down to a single quantity and he isn't picking out of a bunch of basically equally qualified candidates. I'd disagree with that.



> But the crack pipe thing was completely made up.

Can you let the New York Times know?

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/21/us/politics/biden-harm-re...


> there is no evidence that the Biden administration intended to pay for distribution of pipes

> the White House Press Secretary, Jen Psaki, said glass pipes were “never a part of the kit,”

Seems like they know. And that doesn't even get into the ridiculous "for racial equity" part of that sentence.


What else would "safe smoking kits" for "under resourced populations" mean? They provide a definition for under resourced:

"Under-resourced populations can be defined by the following factors:

• By race

• By ethnicity

• By gender (including transgender populations)

• By sexual orientation (including lesbian, gay and bisexual populations)"[0]

[0] https://web.archive.org/web/20220207225346/https:/www.samhsa...


> What else would "safe smoking kits" for "under resourced populations" mean?

Is that a real single quote from somewhere, or is that quoting things from entirely different sections? I see safe smoking kits in the big list of harm reduction equipment. But that list of under-resourced populations is over in the "Addressing Behavioral Health Disparities" section, and is next to the list of social determinants of health:

• Economic Stability

• Education Access and Quality

• Health Care Access and Quality

• Neighborhood and Built Environment

• Social and Community Context

Tracking those sets of data seem like a good way to make sure no subgroups are getting missed, including "groups of people who have systematically experienced greater obstacles to health".

Singling out one of those nine separate factors and acting like the "equity" goal is focused on bad behavior, and possibly even encouraging it, rather than "ensuring that everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible", is a pretty misleading way to talk about this program.

Also "A safe smoking kit may contain alcohol swabs, lip balm, other materials to promote hygiene and reduce the transmission of diseases like HIV and hepatitis"


From the New York Times article linked above:

> Some harm reduction programs do include sterile pipes — which are used for smoking methamphetamine and fentanyl as well as crack cocaine — in such kits, with the intent of preventing infectious disease or injury in drug users who might otherwise rely on contaminated paraphernalia.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: