A recent New York Post article highlights what it dubs as “the latest smack on taxpayers.” The New York Health department recently printed 70,000 brochures, at the expense of $32,000, detailing how to prep and inject heroin.  That’s New York taxpayer monies. The guide is called “Take Charge, Take Care”, which instructs heroin users, among other things, to “warm your body (jump up and down) to show your veins” and “if you don’t register, pull out and try again.”

 

Daliah Heller, assistant commissioner for the Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Use Prevention Care and Treatment, stated the flyer instructs heroin users how to use because “From a health perspective, there is a less harmful way to inject yourself.” The Health Department further defends this so-called harm reduction brochure as “necessary” and that it is “distributed only to addicts or those at risk of becoming users.” Very telling statements, in that this only works to keep “addicts” addicted. It, however, does nothing to address the core issue of addiction. 

 

Is the New York Health Department the real “dummy” in spending $32,000 to instruct heroin users on how to maintain their addiction? Certainly the money could have been put to a better use, such as preventing or treating heroin addiction. So-called harm reduction strategies only enable and promote the lifestyle of those who are addicted.