NYC spent $32,000 of taxpayers money, printing 70,000 fliers that tell you how to shoot heroin, complete with detailed tips on prepping the dope and injecting it into your arm.
The Health Department handout has outraged New York’s top drug prosecutors and abuse experts.
“It’s basically step-by- step instruction on how to inject a poison,” said John Gilbride, who heads the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York office.
“It’s sick,” said City Council member Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Queens)
“Foolish,” said Columbia University drug researcher and treatment expert Dr. Herbert Kleber.
The 16-page pamphlet features seven comics-like illustrations and offers dope fiends useful advice as (edited by YWN)…..
The brochure sends the wrong message about the dangers of the drug, experts said.
“It concerns me that the city would produce a how-to on using drugs,” Gilbride said. “Heroin is extremely potent. You may only get the chance to use it once. To suggest there is a method of using that alleviates the dangers, that’s very disturbing.”
Vallone, who chairs the council’s public safety committee, vowed to shut down the distribution of the pamphlet.
The Health Department defended its brochure, saying it was helpful and necessary, and has been distributed only to addicts or those at risk of becoming abusers.
“Our goal is to promote health and save lives with this information,” said Daliah Heller, assistant commissioner for the Bureau of Alcohol and Drug Use Prevention, Care and Treatment.
Asked why the handout tells people how to shoot up, Heller said, “From a health perspective, there is a less harmful way to inject yourself.”
(Source: NY Post)
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14 Responses
Do they tell you also where to get the purest variety? How about tax exemptions for drug dealers?
Yep. I’m gonna go run right out and get me some heroin now that I know how to inject it properly. Before I just wasn’t aware, but now I know what to do, thanks very much NY state.
Ridiculous. If you aren’t a user, this isn’t going to make you one.
BS”D
Next week – a list of recommended heroin dealers, all of whom turn out to be contributors to various council members’ election campaigns…
BS”D
FB – they are already tax exempt. Except in Holland, it would be kind of foolish to fill out a tax return listing drug dealer as your occupation :)))).
NYC can you please provide me with a list of safe Heroin dealers, so i should be able to protect my body from contaminated Heroin.
Also dear NYC can please provide me with the market price of a kg Heroin to protect me from overpriced Heroin.
the person authorized this wil probably get a raise for such “outstanding achievement”
the person authorized this wil probably get a raise for such “outstanding achievement”
BS”D
You mean for such a HIGH level of achievement :).
Hey Obama legalizes Marawana, NYC helps people get pumped up with , and soon New Jersay will pass the Marriage “redefinition” bill. wow we Americans are getting better and better.
Why don’t they send out a pamphlet with directions on how to get to the nearest rehab center?
mandy,I guess you’re not in Junior High, although you like to snip at people as though you are.
Those of us who work in the system know well the possible repercussions of such publicized “help”. What an irresponsible and utterly foolish Health Dept. I guess someone there was looking for a project that will hasten their journey up the career ladder.
Am I missing something? Isn’t heroin an illegal drug? Who are they printing these instructions for? What’s next? A handbook on how to line your underwear with explosives and not get caught?
Where’s Bloomy on this???
From a public health perspective, it is better to have addicts behave in a safe manner. This isn’t going to convince somebody to use heroin. It may however prevent new cases of hepatitis and AIDS or prevent the development of infections and abscesses. Things like this are always done in conjunction with getting drug rehab.
Addictive behavior is hard to break. It’s easy to moralize and say “they shouldn’t do it” but in the real world, sometimes the best you can hope for is limiting the damage.
Shlomo2,
Again, you are a settled adult, and won’t be convinced to use heroin from a pamphlet. There are thousands of school kids on the edge, knowing their peers are shooting up, and wondering if they too, should get in on the action.
A little push, a quiet “how-to” session from a best friend, or a neat little “heroin for dummies from the Health Dept” is all they need to cross over and lose their best years as well.
There is NO safe way to use heroin, because heroin is intrinsically unsafe. It is not a gateway drug; it is a potential killer drug. This is not about “moralizing”, it is about shock that the Health Dept. is so clueless as to facilitate deaths and ruination of lives. Safe shooting up of heroin cannot limit the damage; the damage of heroin itself is so severe, it is like saying…I don’t even want to type the analogy…
As Gilbride said, a child may only get to use heroin once…
This was a foolish, misdirected attempt, and should never have seen the light of day.