NEW YORK CITY (LifeSiteNews) – Ads from the New York City Department of Health urge users of crack, heroin, cocaine, and other fentanyl-laced drugs to take drugs in an “empowered” way.
The ads, seen on public transportation, give advice including to “[a]void using alone and take turns” and “[s]tart with a small dose and go slowly.” Drug users should also keep anti-overdose drug naloxone on hand, in case the other steps do not work to avoid an overdose.
Furthermore, drug users should not be “ashamed” but should feel “empowered” to do drugs “safely.”
“Don’t be ashamed you are using, be empowered that you are using safely,” one poster states.
New York City’s health commissioner is so idiotic he actually endorses a message suggesting heroine users view themselves as “empowered” if they use the drug safely. This demonstrates a lack of nuanced thinking that has been catastrophic to our health- based policies 1/ pic.twitter.com/wMJQ5FnqZH
— Jenin Younes (@Leftylockdowns1) May 30, 2022
A Republican city councilman criticized the message from the health department and its commissioner, Ashwin Vasan, and contrasted it with the COVID policies supported by the public health official.
“This is someone that still puts masks on the toddlers, still makes student-athletes not play sports if they are not vaccinated, all this because of a risk,” Councilman Joe Borrelli told Fox News on Tuesday. “And yet, here we are urging people who want to use heroin or potentially would use meth or crack or anything to go slow, take turns, start small, you are ‘empowered.’”
He noted that many teenagers ride public transportation to and from school and could get the wrong message from the ads.
He said it is the “absolute wrong message” in NYC, where “drug use is on the rise, drug overdoses are on the rise.”
“We should be putting our focus on recovery and addiction counseling, we should be putting our focus on cutting off fentanyl at our border. We should be focusing on prosecuting drug dealers,” he told Fox News. “All those things we have kind of abandoned and lost our way from.”
The Big Apple also runs “safe injection sites” for drug users to take in substances.
“Jose Collado settled in at a clean white table in a sunlit room, sang a few bars and injected himself with heroin,” the Associated Press reported on one of the sites in March.
“It’s a loving environment where people can use safely and stay alive,” Sam Rivera, the director of OnPoint NYC, told the AP. “We’re showing up for people who too many people view as disposable.”