XPost: alt.drugs.crack, alt.politics.republicans, talk.politics.guns   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: yourdime@outlook.com   
      
   City officials’ new drug-themed vending machine is a huge hit with local   
   addicts — who wasted no time cleaning it out overnight as they stocked up   
   on its free crack pipes, lip balm and Narcan.   
      
   “Yes, I love it,” drug user Evelyn Williams told The Post while standing   
   at the “public health” vending machine in Brownsville, Brooklyn, on   
   Tuesday. “They put it in yesterday, and it’s empty already.   
      
   By 1 p.m., a drug-prevention-program worker was starting to restock the   
   machine with more drug-test strips, Narcan and condoms — predicting the   
   vending machine could need to be refilled “maybe twice a day, depending on   
   which items go quite quickly.’’   
      
   “We have a lot of addicts and heroin users over here,” Williams said.   
   “They should re-stock it immediately!”   
      
   Self-described crack smoker Minoshi Calpe, 56, had walked away with the   
   second-to-last product in the vending machine — a fentanyl test strip —   
   around 11 a.m. while sniffing that the glass used for the free pipes might   
   not be up to her standards.   
      
   “I like the Pyrex because it’s a little thicker,’’ she said, also   
   lamenting that “you can’t even sell that [vending stuff] because the   
   programs give you all that stuff” already for free.   
      
   “The crack pipes are a little too thin now,” explained Calpe, who said she   
   has six children and nine grandchildren. “And every time I pull on [the   
   newer ones], it was burning my lips. I was like, ‘Hell, no! I like my lips   
   too much for this.’   
      
   “I do my little crack here and there,” Caple said. “I smoke my pipe, and I   
   smoke weed. I don’t lace none of my stuff with stuff.”   
      
   She then held up her fentanyl test strip, and said while laughing, “I’m   
   trying to get high, not die” before dancing off down the street.   
      
   Another man who rode by the depleted vending machine on a bicycle simply   
   gave the thumb’s up to a reporter and shouted, “Yeah!”   
      
   Elan Quashie, the drug-prevention worker, had not replenished the vending   
   machine’s supply of pipes by late afternoon, although he restocked some of   
   its other products.   
      
   “We got a lot of positive feedback from some individuals that actually   
   used the machine, and I think they were pleased to know that the items   
   were actually free,” he said. “So with that being said, you know, we had   
   an idea that a lot of selections will go very quickly.   
      
   “Happy that it did.”   
      
   At one point, a resident stopped by to grab one of the fentanyl-testing   
   strips that were being replenished.   
      
   “I want to make sure the s–t ain’t fenty before I use it,” he said. “I   
   want to test what I buy first so I know what it is.”   
      
   The machine, installed in the drug-infested neighborhood Monday, is the   
   first of four new contraptions set to provide a slew of drug-themed items   
   to the community gratis, including drug-smoking kits complete with pipes,   
   mouthpieces and lip balm, the overdose-reversing drug Narcan and fentanyl-   
   detecting strips, as well as various odd items such as condoms, tampons   
   and nicotine gum.   
      
   Future machines also may include syringes used to inject heroin and other   
   drugs, said city Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Ashwin Vasan at a   
   Monday press conference unveiling the vending device.   
      
   The city says the idea is to help keep drug users safer with clean   
   supplies and help curb soaring overdose deaths.   
      
   But the endeavor doesn’t sit well with some locals and pols.   
      
   Early Tuesday morning — after less than a day open for business — the only   
   items left in the previously chockful machine were a single Narcan   
   overdose-reversing kit and two drug-testing strips.   
      
   “Thank God,” Williams said of the machine. “I’ve never OD’d, but two   
   people in my house OD’d this year back-to-back, and I used Narcan, and   
   they both lived.   
      
   “Two years ago, someone died in my house,” she said. “I thought he was   
   sleeping, man. He was snoring. He OD’d, but I didn’t know it.”   
      
   The machines cost $11,000 each before being stocked. The drug   
   paraphernalia and other items in them are free, with patrons needing only   
   to punch in a zip code to get what they want.   
      
   But the endeavor doesn’t sit well with some local pols.   
      
   “Our city should not be commodifying addiction, and anyone supporting   
   these vending machines should be ashamed of themselves,” City Councilwoman   
   Joann Ariola (R-Queens) raged to The Post on Tuesday.   
      
   “The money the Health Department is spending on these machines — which are   
   providing, among other things, free crack pipes to drug-addicted   
   individuals — should be spent on rehabilitation and social services to   
   actually help addicts rather than on items like these which only encourage   
   their addiction,” she said.   
      
   A Brownsville passer-by also gave the program a thumb’s down.   
      
   “That shouldn’t be there!” the man yelled. “I don’t care what the f–k you   
   put in there! You’re better off moving that and putting an ambulance in   
   there!”   
      
   An anonymous critic wrote on the ground nearby, “Poor Choices.”   
      
   The controversial machine also seems to be a departure for Mayor Eric   
   Adams, who campaigned in 2021 as an anti-drug candidate opposed to   
   legalizing dangerous drugs.   
      
   “I don’t support legalizing crack cocaine,” Adams said during a debate   
   with then-mayoral hopeful Andrew Yang. “It’s devastating when you see what   
   it does. I don’t support the legalization of heroin. I don’t support the   
   legalization of those serious drugs at all.”   
      
   Still, earlier this year, the Adams administration also announced it hoped   
   to have five “safe” drug injection sites operating in the city by 2025 so   
   drug users can shoot up without fear of arrest.   
      
   There are already two injection sites at nonprofit centers in Harlem and   
   Washington Heights in Manhattan, with future locations expected in other   
   drug-plagued communities like the South Bronx.   
      
   Officials at City Hall did not respond to a Post request for comment   
   Tuesday.   
      
   Additional reporting by Bernadette Hogan   
      
   Anna1452   
   6 hours ago   
      
   brought to you by the same activists in SF and Portland and look how that   
   turned out. Do these people ever talk to each other. What am I saying?   
   This is like the whole trans debate. The pseudo "experts" take it as an   
   article of faith that "harm reduction techniques work. Meet me back here   
   in 6-9 months and we can dissect why this was a massive failure   
      
   MoneyizJustice   
   3 hours ago   
      
   This turned out very good for anybody who loves fentanyl or Hair-Ron   
   (spelled how i say it) around those areas…   
      
   Not going to be so good for the rest of us ??   
      
   Besides since everything inside the Vending machine is free, some folks   
   just taking a bunch of the items and selling them online or exchanging   
   them for something anyway…   
      
   MostlyCompliant   
   3 hours ago   
      
   In order to address gun crime.  NYC Health department will offer a vending   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)