Have you been wanting to try heroin but weren’t sure how to shoot up properly? Well, if you live in New York City, you’re in luck!
Apparently the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene had an extra $32,000 laying around and thought the best use of the money would be to print 70,000 copies of a handout instructing would-be addicts how to “Take Care of Your Veins.”
Such use of taxpayer funds naturally raises some obvious questions: Do 1 out of every 120 New Yorkers really need this instruction? Have things really gotten that bad since Giuliani stepped down as mayor? Is this what people do now that they can’t smoke in bars?
Naturally, the Debbie Downers at the DEA are trying to harsh everyone’s buzz. Special Agent-In-Charge John Gilbride calls the handouts a “step-by-step instruction on how to inject a poison.”
But the DEA is missing the bigger picture. We live in a country where everyone not only has the right to inject poison but has a need for a government health department to tell the how to do it. If people can’t get accurate information on how to be safe while sticking a needle full of smack in their arm they may feel the need to move to another city. (Addicts probably think The Wire was produced by the Baltimore Welcome Bureau.) NYC can’t afford to have their future heroin addicts leaving en masse, now can it?
(Via: The Gothamist )
While I have you, can I ask you something? I’ll be quick.
Twenty-five thousand people subscribe to First Things. Why can’t that be fifty thousand? Three million people read First Things online like you are right now. Why can’t that be four million?
Let’s stop saying “can’t.” Because it can. And your year-end gift of just $50, $100, or even $250 or more will make it possible.
How much would you give to introduce just one new person to First Things? What about ten people, or even a hundred? That’s the power of your charitable support.
Make your year-end gift now using this secure link or the button below.