Texans in search of assist for substance use can name the Substance Abuse and Psychological Well being Companies Administration’s free assist line at 800-662-4357. They will additionally entry companies obtainable of their area via the Texas Well being and Human Companies web site.

Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz criticized President Joe Biden final month for supposedly funding the distribution of free crack pipes — an assertion federal officers denied and known as deceptive.

Cruz was referring to the Biden administration’s $30 million grant program that goals to mitigate the fallout from the nation’s opioid disaster and elevated fentanyl overdoses. This system depends on what are known as harm-reduction insurance policies, which name for minimizing the detrimental well being and financial impacts of drug abuse till customers can get remedy somewhat than criminalizing dependancy.

The senator’s feedback centered on protected smoking kits, which usually include alcohol swabs, lip balm and different protecting supplies meant to guard customers from potential burns, blisters and transmittable infections similar to HIV and hepatitis C. Some harm-reduction organizations embody glass stems that may operate as pipes of their protected smoking kits. However White Home press secretary Jen Psaki denied that the federal program would fund the inclusion of pipes and stated the federal authorities doesn’t assist direct or oblique funding for such gadgets.

As conversations proceed about assuaging the injury from opioids and fentanyl, right here’s what it’s best to find out about Cruz’ claims and harm-reduction practices in Texas.

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In early February, Cruz sparked controversy when he tweeted “Biden crime coverage: Crack pipes for all” after which later went on his podcast, “Verdict”, to additional amplify the assertion, which fact-checkers have stated is fake.

Cruz’s feedback responded to a information article from a conservative publication that claimed this system offering funding for harm-reduction insurance policies beneath the Biden administration would distribute crack pipes as a part of protected smoking kits.

His statements that Biden was giving out crack pipes — together with messaging from different Republican senators — reverberated in conservative and right-wing data circles.

The fallout was vital sufficient that U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, a reasonable Democrat from West Virginia, joined Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida to introduce laws prohibiting federal funds for buying paraphernalia like pipes and needles.

However federal officers denied claims this system would fund pipes. In a joint assertion, Well being and Human Companies Secretary Xavier Becerra and Nationwide Drug Management Coverage Director Rahul Gupta stated their businesses are centered on “utilizing our assets neatly” to cut back the hurt and fatalities attributable to drug use.

“Accordingly, no federal funding might be used immediately or via subsequent reimbursement of grantees to place pipes in protected smoking kits,” they stated.

A spokesperson for Cruz didn’t reply to requests for remark.

No, the Biden administration shouldn’t be funding the distribution of crack pipes

Hurt discount gives a science-based different of recognizing dependancy as a illness, versus conventional and nonscientific approaches which have criminalized drug utilization.

For probably the most half, hurt discount doesn’t look to treatment the addictions of the folks served. As an alternative, it really works to make sure folks on medication keep alive and as wholesome as potential till they’ll obtain correct remedy.

Advocates perceive that drug use entails vital dangers, but in addition imagine that individuals — particularly these coping with dependancy — want love and assist.

“There are going to be people who use medication,” stated Claire Zagorski, a harm-reduction and drug coverage researcher on the College of Texas at Austin’s Faculty of Pharmacy. “I need to meet these folks wherever they’re.”

Zagorski stated hurt discount is economically good — individuals who overdose or injure themselves whereas utilizing can find yourself with a hospital invoice that they can not pay.

Marcia Ory, a public well being professor at Texas A&M College and chair of the varsity’s opioid job power, stated the harm-reduction strategy accompanies a shift in notion about dependancy. Proof reveals that individuals who get hooked on medication don’t have a scarcity of willpower however as an alternative bear bodily modifications that entice them to need extra medication.

Ory, whose job power gives coaching on hurt discount and naloxone administration, stated if criminalization had been profitable, fewer folks would have dependancy and fewer lives and households can be ruined.

“I’d hope that harm-reduction methods would turn out to be the norm, that they might be prevalent, that the view of dependancy can be away from a legal perspective towards a medical perspective,” stated Ory. “These methods have been round for a while, and the difficulty is with the ability to make the most of them to the fullest, as a result of that’s what’s going to avoid wasting folks’s lives, households, communities.”

Applications can distribute an array of merchandise that every one intention to cut back hurt from drug use. That may embody protected injection kits with clear syringes and fentanyl testing strips, that are a comparatively low cost option to test for the presence of the lethal narcotic that’s more and more a contaminant in different medication.

“As a result of fentanyl is turning into extra prevalent — it’s lethal — it’s all of the extra motive why a few of these harm-reduction methods are so necessary,” Ory stated. “The belief is that when you have drug paraphernalia freely obtainable, that that’s going to encourage drug abuse, that’s not a scientific truth.”

Distributed gadgets can even embody naloxone, usually referred to as Narcan, a medication that may deal with opioid overdose. Moreover, many packages additionally give out merchandise for non-drug-related use, like protected intercourse kits and common hygiene kits with cleaning soap and toothbrushes.

Because the state grapples with the continuing opioid epidemic and an increase in fentanyl deaths, public well being specialists say that harm-reduction methods can each assist folks with their drug addictions and curb fallout from the disaster.

Narcan is one product many harm-reduction teams in Texas distribute that the state has additionally embraced utilizing. Latest settlements between the state and pharmaceutical firms implicated within the opioid epidemic present hundreds of thousands of {dollars}’ value of Narcan for the state.

However different methods face a roadblock in Texas: State legislation criminalizes the possession and distribution of drug paraphernalia, which incorporates fentanyl testing strips. Clear syringes and clear pipes may also be thought of paraphernalia.

Throughout final 12 months’s legislative session, a invoice sponsored by state Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, aimed to take away legal penalties for possessing paraphernalia. The invoice handed out of committee however by no means got here up for a vote by the Texas Home.

Crockett, who’s up for a congressional seat in south Dallas, agrees {that a} harm-reduction strategy is the longer term for serving to fight drug issues, in distinction to criminalizing medication.

“You lock somebody up who has an dependancy, you don’t assist them in any respect,” Crockett stated. “You simply put them away, and then you definately allow them to again out. Guess what? They nonetheless have an dependancy. They usually’ve not been given the instruments and assets. And sadly sufficient, they’ve not been handled with the dignity that basically they need to be afforded.”

These obstacles prompted many advocates for harm-reduction insurance policies to criticize Cruz for politicizing their work.

“It’s outrageous that any individual like Ted Cruz is even commenting on harm-reduction instruments when loads of the evidence-based instruments that we want within the first place are unlawful within the state,” stated Paulette Soltani, director of organizing for the Texas Hurt Discount Alliance, which protested exterior Cruz’s Austin workplace in March. “It’s a political difficulty on the expense of the lives of Texans.”

Disclosure: Texas A&M College and the College of Texas at Austin have been monetary supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan information group that’s funded partly by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Monetary supporters play no function within the Tribune’s journalism. Discover a full listing of them right here.

This story comes from our KHOU 11 Information companions at The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media group that informs Texans – and engages with them – about public coverage, politics, authorities, and statewide points.