(RepublicanView.org) – Vending machines dispensing crack pipes and other drug-taking paraphernalia are appearing in New York City. The first was unveiled in Brooklyn on June 5th and provides instruments for hard drug use free of charge. The machine also offers Naloxone, a drug used to reverse opioid overdoses, and instructions on how to use it. Anyone with a New York zip code can access the machine and its products.
The city’s health commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan said the initiative will save lives. “We are in the midst of an overdose crisis in our city, which is taking a fellow New Yorker from us every three hours and is a major cause of falling life expectancy in NYC,” he declared.
Overdose deaths in the Big Apple are at record highs, and the synthetic drug Fentanyl plays an increasing role. The drug, manufactured using chemicals from China and pouring through the southern US border, is implicated in 80% of overdoses in New York.
The decision to install the machine mirrors the approach taken by officials in Los Angeles. The LA County government is also supplying pipes and needles to addicts. Some people in the area have objected strongly to the idea with one former addict describing it as “assisted suicide.” Fentanyl has also taken grip in LA and is responsible for more than half of the overdoses there.
The liberal approach to hard drug use is justified under the guise of “harm reduction,” but statistics show that it achieves the opposite result. In Oregon, where voters elected to decriminalize hard drugs in 2020, addiction and homelessness have skyrocketed. In May, a poll of residents of the Beaver State found that the majority now regret their decision and believe drug use should once again be prohibited.
Following decriminalization, death from opioid overdose jumped by 58% in two years, outpacing the national average. Oregon now records the highest rates of illicit drug use disorders in the United States.
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