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White Home denies reported plan to distribute crack pipes
Fox Information correspondent Jacqui Heinrich has the newest on the Biden administration’s place on protected smoking kits on ‘The Story.’
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A conservative information outlet’s newest report on crack pipes in so-called “protected smoking kits” which will obtain Biden administration grant funding set off a wave of criticism of earlier studies that batted down the notion that the kits included such pipes.
The Washington Free Beacon reported in February that the Biden administration would fund the distribution of crack pipes by a $30 million Well being and Human Providers grant program that reimburses native governments and entities that present protected “smoking kits,” within the title of advancing racial fairness and safer drug use for addicts. The grant particularly denotes “smoking kits/provides” as amongst gear to boost “hurt discount efforts.” Different parts of this system included “syringes, vaccinations, illness screenings, condoms, and fentanyl strips,” based on the Beacon.
LIBERAL OUTLETS, FACT-CHECKERS GO TO WAR WITH FREE BEACON ON BIDEN FUNDING ‘CRACK PIPE’ DISTRIBUTION
On the time, the Free Beacon cited a HHS spokesperson who instructed the outlet the smoking kits would offer customers with the flexibility to smoke “any illicit substance,” together with crack cocaine and crystal methamphetamine. The story additionally famous current smoking equipment packages in cities corresponding to San Francisco, Annapolis, and Seattle all embrace smoking pipes.
A pipe for crack cocaine use, a needle for heroin use and a pipe for methamphetamine use are proven on the Folks’s Hurt Discount Alliance in Seattle, Washington, on April 30, 2015.
(Reuters/David Ryder)
The story got here again to the forefront this week when the Free Beacon’s Patrick Hauf reported Thursday that he’d visited harm-reduction organizations in 5 East Coast cities – New York Metropolis, Washington, D.C., Boston, Baltimore, and Richmond, Va. – and located all of them included crack pipes of their so-called protected smoking kits. It did word that the organizations it investigated had not stated whether or not they would apply for the HHS grant program, whose recipients will probably be introduced on Sunday.
Conservative figures like Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., radio host Dana Loesch, and Republican chairwoman Ronna McDaniel jumped on the brand new story.
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“In Joe Biden’s America, it’s simpler to get a crack pipe than to search out child formulation,” McDaniel tweeted. Others blasted information shops that took the Free Beacon to process on the time for its preliminary reporting and the following firestorm.
In February, White Home Press Secretary Jen Psaki flatly denied the Free Beacon’s story, calling it “inaccurate” and that crack pipes have been “by no means” part of smoking kits. An HHS spokesperson referred to as the story “blatant misinformation,” though a subsequent assertion from HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra stated the administration was “targeted on utilizing our sources well to cut back hurt and save lives. Accordingly, no federal funding will probably be used instantly or by subsequent reimbursement of grantees to place pipes in protected smoking kits.”
Press secretary Jen Psaki speaks at a White Home briefing, Jan. 25, 2022.
(AP Photograph/Andrew Harnik)
Using the phrase “accordingly” despatched up some crimson flags; Washington Put up fact-checker Glenn Kessler on the time wrote the language provides “no suggestion that the unique reporting on crack pipes was flawed. Using the phrase ‘Accordingly’ suggests a change in coverage with out instantly saying so.” He offered an replace to his February report back to acknowledge the Free Beacon’s current reporting.
Kessler’s colleagues, nonetheless, appeared extra assured in debunking the Free Beacon’s report declaring in a Washington Put up headline, “No, the federal authorities isn’t spending $30 million on ‘crack pipes.'”
Many different fact-checkers and information shops equally repeated the Biden administration line and attacked the Free Beacon.
“What’s inside a protected smoking equipment to cease opioid overdose? No, it isn’t a crack pipe,” USA Right this moment reported.
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The report requested at one level, “So what precisely is in these kits?” Its reply was to cite Psaki, who stated at a briefing, “A protected smoking equipment could include alcohol swabs, lip balm, different supplies to advertise hygiene and scale back the transmission of ailments like HIV and hepatitis.” It additionally cited the HHS in its report.
The left-wing fact-checking outlet Snopes admitted on the time “protected smoking kits” have been a part of hurt discount provides and have been a “very small half” of this system, but declared the report “principally false” and was a part of “grossly deceptive information protection.” It then modified its ruling to “Outdated,” citing the HHS assertion that pipes would now not be utilized in protected smoking kits. A separate fact-check from “Lead Tales,” which was co-founded by a Democratic political donor, was utilized by Fb to flag the Free Beacon story as misinformation.
Secretary of Well being and Human Providers Xavier Becerra stated "no federal funding will probably be used instantly or by subsequent reimbursement of grantees to place pipes in protected smoking kits."
(Shawn Thew/Pool through AP, File)
A CNN fact-check declared the Biden administration was not “funding crack pipes,” writing, “It isn’t true that tax {dollars} are presently getting used for a ‘crack pipe fund.’ Whereas HHS and the White Home have since stated they by no means deliberate to incorporate pipes within the kits, the parameters for the grant didn’t explicitly state that. Moreover, earlier studies on hurt discount have famous that safer smoking kits typically do embrace glass stems or pipes.”
A Reuters fact-check dominated the story “false,” as did the Each day Beast, which declared fact-checkers had “laid it to relaxation.”
But within the Each day Beast’s personal story, it linked to non-governmental group Hurt Discount Worldwide’s listing of typical objects in smoking kits, which included “glass stems.”
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In correspondence reviewed by Fox Information Digital on the time, Hauf particularly requested HHS spokesman Christopher Garrett if the kits have been “supposed to assist customers scale back danger when smoking crack and meth.”
“I wouldn’t restrict to these two substances. It could reference any illicit substance,” Garrett replied.
Additionally on the time, Hauf pointed to the nonprofit Drug Coverage Alliance reacting with outrage on the HHS’ announcement in February about now not placing pipes in protected smoking kits. It “seems to have been below the impression that the HHS program would offer crack pipes,” he tweeted.
At Thursday’s press briefing, Psaki reiterated that “no federal funding has gone to it” and that HHS coverage “doesn’t enable crack pipes to be included.”
“I might simply word that it is a little bit of a conspiracy idea that is been unfold on the market. It isn’t correct,” Psaki stated.
David Rutz is a senior editor at Fox Information. Observe him on Twitter at @davidrutz.
