According to Palm Beach Post
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, is one of the latest members of the GOP to take incredulous offense at a federal grant program from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to battle drug abuse.
“The Biden administration is going to be sending crack pipes and meth pipes, targeting minority communities in this country, underserved communities,” Rubio said Tuesday in a video Twitter post.
“This is insanity,” Rubio said. “This isn’t even about liberal or conservative anymore. This is about crazy versus normal, insane versus common sense. Where does this end?”
But what is the program? Is it, as critics say, a $30 million handout promoting drug use in the name of “racial equity?”
Biden is sending free meth & crack pipes to minority communities in the name of ‘racial equity’
There is no end in sight for this lunacy https://t.co/RLv6cAuLCt pic.twitter.com/WdlzOojkdF
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 8, 2022
The Harm Reduction Program listed safer smoking kits to be funded as a small part of a larger substance-abuse harm reduction grant overseen by the HHS to combat the dramatically increasing number of drug overdoses in the U.S. The contents of the safer smoking kits were not specified.
After protests from Republican politicians and media attention, the HHS sent out a news release to clarify the matter.
“HHS and ONDCP are focused on using our resources smartly to reduce harm and save lives,” according to the statement by HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Rahul Gupta. “Accordingly, no federal funding will be used directly or through subsequent reimbursement of grantees to put pipes in safe smoking kits. The goal of harm reduction is to save lives.”