Republican Reps. Lauren Boebert (CO) and Dan Bishop (N.C.) introduced legislation to ban the government from using federal funds to pay for crack pipes or other drug materials after a recent report revealed that the Biden administration would be giving "smoking kits" that include free crack pipes to drug addicts as part of a $30 million grant program.
The Halting the Use of Narcotics Through Effective Recovery Act, dubbed as the HUNTER Act in reference to President Joe Biden's son, who has struggled with drug addiction, was introduced this week to counter the administration's efforts to fund drug use.
"Our tax dollars should not be funding the death and destruction of crack addicts," Boebert told Fox News Digital. "Democrats are always putting the American taxpayer last and Republicans just want to give people in need a good job. Democrats want to give them crack pipes."
Bishop touted the bill while also slamming Democratic drug policies – such as safe injection sites, needle trade-ins and safe smoking kits – and explained that progressive drug programs look to "remove all stigma" from drug use when "stigma is not a bad thing."
"The HUNTER Act is a means of encapsulating how ridiculous public policy can become when it's in the hands of the woke," Bishop told the news outlet.
The controversy surrounding the government's alleged funding of crack pipes ensued after The Washington Free Beacon reported that the Department of Health and Human Services would oversee a $30 million "harm reduction" grant program as part of the administration's efforts to advance "racial equity."
The program would be funded through the American Rescue Plan and is designed to curb drug-related health risks. Some supplies included in the grant program are fentanyl test strips, syringes and "smoking kits/supplies."
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HHS told The Free Beacon that the pipes will be provided to drug users in order to reduce the risk of infection when smoking substances with glass pipes.
The outlet also noted that additional efforts to distribute safe smoking kits did not provide pipes. Instead, such kits included mouthpieces to prevent glass cuts, rubber bands to prevent burns and filters to reduce the risk of disease.
The Biden administration earlier this week slammed the Free Beacon report as "misinformation."
"[Crack pipes] were never a part of the kit; it was inaccurate reporting," Psaki said at a press briefing. "And we wanted to put out information to make that clear."
Psaki said safe smoking kits could include "alcohol swabs, lip balm, other materials to promote hygiene and reduce the transmission of diseases like HIV and hepatitis."
And in a Wednesday press release, HHS secretary Xavier Becerra and Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Rahul Gupta said that "no federal funding will be used directly or through subsequent reimbursement of grantees to put pipes in safe smoking kits."
But The Free Beacon stands by its reporting despite pushback from officials.
Last week our reporter @PatrickHauf reached out to HHS about its plan to fund "smoking kits," and the spokesman both confirmed and defended them as effective at stopping spread of disease. pic.twitter.com/Nl2EnpFWNP
— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) February 8, 2022
The HUNTER Act comes after the Cutting off Rampant Access to Crack Kits (CRACK) Act was proposed by Senate Republicans on Thursday to prevent funds from the American Rescue Plan from paying for drug paraphernalia, and the bipartisan Preventing Illicit Paraphernalia for Exchange Systems Act, or PIPES Act, that was introduced Friday by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) to block federal funds from being used to purchase and distribute tools used to take drugs, such as crack pipes and syringes.
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