The "Biden Giving Away Free Crack Pipes" story all over right-wing media? Uh, that was kinda sorta completely made up by the Washington Free Beacon, a right-wing media outlet.
‘Free Crack Pipes’ Myth Rooted in False Free Beacon Report
PIPE DREAMS
The Washington Free Beacon seemed to take a big leap to assert that free crack pipes would be part of a harm reduction package. Conservative media lapped it up.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/free-crack-pipes-myth-rooted-in-false-free-beacon-report
Earlier this week, a lie rocketed around conservative media that the Biden administration planned to hand out “crack pipes” as part of a $30 million public health
grant package. The truth was just getting its pants on.
The myth appears to have started with a miscommunication and a large leap of thinking from the right-leaning
Washington Free Beacon.
The Daily Beast confirmed that the claim—that a Health and Human Services spokesperson confirmed that smoking kits funded by the program “will provide pipes”—is false. The agency said the spokesperson never made or confirmed that claim, and it provided documentation to corroborate that version of events.
The report, published Monday and
titled “Biden Admin To Fund Crack Pipe Distribution To Advance ‘Racial Equity,’” cited an HHS spokesperson as confirming that a sweeping harm reduction package “will provide pipes” to smoke, quote, “any illicit substance.”
“Included in the grant, which is overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services, are funds for ‘smoking kits/supplies,’” the article said. “A spokesman for the agency told the
Washington Free Beacon that these kits will provide pipes for users to smoke crack cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, and ‘any illicit substance.’”
But an HHS spokesperson told The Daily Beast that the agency never said the kits would provide pipes. The spokesperson provided the email chain with the reporter, which matches the agency’s account.
According to the emails, the reporter never mentioned pipes. The HHS representative confirmed that the reporter “never asked about pipes” in any communication.
In the exchange, the agency provides the
Free Beacon with a statement, which does not mention pipes and clarifies that all kits must comply with the law. In response, the reporter asks, “Just to confirm, these kits [are] intended to help users reduce risk when smoking crack and meth?”
The spokesperson replies, “I wouldn’t limit it to those two substances. It would reference ‘any illicit substance.’”
That response, which the report quotes, addresses the inquiry about risk reduction generally—not about pipes.
An HHS spokesperson explained to The Daily Beast that “as you can see the staff never said or confirm[ed] that pipes were part of the kits.”
The spokesperson added that the reporter also “omitted the information shared with him about the grantees needing to comply with federal, state, and local laws—the very language that would prohibit crack pipes.”
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