Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody announced last week that she is demanding information about whether a Biden administration program used taxpayer money to purchase crack pipes for drug addicts.
Moody said she is taking legal action against two federal agencies due to withheld information with respect to the program’s suspected practices. In February 2022, Florida sent Freedom of Information Act requests to the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services seeking records regarding the alleged use of federal grant funds to promote drug use through safe smoking kits—in which some were reportedly found to include crack pipes and other drug-related paraphernalia. Now, more than a year later, with both agencies failing to reply to the state’s request, Moody is taking DOJ and HHS to court to bring the information to light.
“If Biden is using your tax dollars to buy crackpipes for drug addicts, you have the right to know. Our country is in the grips of a drug overdose crisis, and the Biden administration is stonewalling our requests and keeping the public in the dark about so many misguided, reckless policies. We are taking them to court to get answers for the American people,“ Moody said.
In February 2022, President Joe Biden announced the deadline for service organizations and local governments to apply for $30 million in federal funding for a so-called harm reduction effort, safe smoking kits. At the time, White House sources claimed that crack pipes or other paraphernalia would not be included in the federally-funded kits—however, a subsequent investigation found several incidences of kits containing such materials.
“According to news sources, kits obtained from five major U.S. cities—Baltimore, Boston, New York, Richmond and Washington, D.C.—contained crack pipes. Kits available from a harm-reduction center located only city-blocks away from the U.S. Capitol and two elementary schools also contained drug paraphernalia,” Moody’s office announced. “News of the alleged reckless program comes as the nation is experiencing record drug overdose deaths, while the federal government is deepening the record-high national debt. Drug overdose deaths topped 100,000 in 2021, and the U.S. is currently more than $31 trillion in debt.
“The state of Florida filed a FOIA request for access to federal records regarding this program in February 2022. Now, more than a year later, the agencies are still hiding the records and have not responded to the request. Attorney General Moody is taking legal action to make DOJ and HHS provide relevant information regarding this federal program, so the truth can be uncovered,” Moody’s office added.
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