The Biden administration has created a multi-million dollar grant program geared towards reducing drug harm and saving lives.

Our KSAT Trust Index Team received a question from a viewer asking if the money is going towards crack pipes. The claim is true on our KSAT Trust Index.

One local nonprofit official said while they haven’t received any grant money from the federal government, these kind of programs actually save lives.

$30 million in grant funding was authorized by the American Rescue Plan to support harm reduction services that include treatment, prevention but also syringe exchanges and smoking kits like crack pipes.

“Less use, less burning, less spread of disease. That is what we’re trying to accomplish,” said Gavin Rogers, executive director for Corazon San Antonio, a nonprofit that provides support for the marginalized and those struggling with homelessness.

Rogers said the clean needles, pipes and outreach are all evidence-based approaches that work.

“It is critical. This is (a) life-saving measure,” Rogers said. “A holistic harm reduction program is more than just needle exchange and cooking kits. It’s about policy and advocacy. It’s about street outreach. It’s about case management and getting people into homes, and it’s about peer recovery, counseling and education to educate those clients in safe use, but also ways and forms of recovery.”

Corazon San Antonio’s Harm Reduction Team is made up of seven staff members.

“We were gifted with a wonderful grant through the UT Health San Antonio School of Nursing,” Rogers said. “More programs (like these) and more money is needed to help clients, not only in Bexar County but throughout Texas that have issues of drug dependency.”

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the grant program will benefit nonprofits and local governments to make drug use safer for those struggling with addiction. It is also designed to prevent deaths and reduce health risks linked to drug use.

“Safe pipes are to keep people from spreading other harmful diseases around the community and to other clients,” Rogers said. “So, those safe smoking kits are designed (to help stop) the spread of harmful disease.”

However, this is not the first time the Biden administration addresses drug use. In a press release, the White House said, “At a time when overdose deaths, driven primarily by illicitly manufactured synthetic drugs, have reached a record high, the Biden-Harris Administration took action through its first-year drug policy priorities to significantly expand access to evidence-based prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and recovery support services, as well to reduce the supply of illicit drugs like fentanyl.”

It is against the law to sell or distribute drug paraphernalia however, there’s an exception if authorized by the government. At the end of the day, experts and community outreach workers said the goal is to aid in the treatment and recovery of addicts.

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