New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg defends pamphlet for heroin users
By Trish LaMonte
January 06, 2010, 9:20AM
New York City's "10 Tips for Safer Use" pamphlet on heroin.New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is defending a decision by the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to print a pamphlet for heroin users, which offers information on how to prepare drugs carefully and how to care for veins to avoid infection.
"I would certainly not recommend to anyone that they use hard drugs or soft drugs," Bloomberg said on Monday. "But our health department does have an interest in if you're going to do certain things to get you to do it as healthily as you possibly can."
Tips in the booklet include: "Drop the cotton directly into the cooker. Don't touch it!" and "Warm your body (jump up and down) to show your veins."
John Gilbride, New York's top official with the Drug Enforcement Administration, calls the brochure a 'step-by-step instruction on how to inject a poison.'
The 17-page pamphlet also offers information on HIV testing and the dangers of sharing needles. It has been in circulation since June 2007, but the city has faced increasing pressure over the past few days to withdraw the publication.“You’re spending taxpayer money and getting a how-to guide for first-time users,” said City Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr., a Democrat from Queens. Vallone said he plans to meet with the city's health commissioner this week to encourage him to withdraw the pamphlet.
WCBS: See the heroin pamphlet (PDF)
NY Times: Public officials attack New York's heroin pamphlet
NY Post: NYC narcotics prosecutor blasts 'heroin how-to' pamphlet
CNN: NYC heroin pamphlet - is it a help or a how-to guide?
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23 comments:
I wonder what Mayor Bloomberg was thinking when he came up with the idea to create a “how-to” guide for taking heroin. Sure, there is the positive side where the drug users actually take the pamphlet into consideration and either does it healthily or calls for help. Bloomberg wants everyone to be healthy, and he also was going to use this opportunity to gain money for the city by emptying out the hospital from drug addicts, but there is also the huge negative side to the pamphlet. Like what City Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr. said, the tax money, which should be used for more productive things, is being used to create a “how-to guide for first-time users”. I doubt that the drug users will read this pamphlet and decide to change their ways, and following the pamphlet doesn’t prevent a person from overdosing.
I think the "10 ways for safer use" pamphlet was a waste of time and money. It will, I believe, educate more people on how to use heroine rather than stop people from using it. We are contradicting our first motive, which is to stop people from using drugs. Teaching people how to do it " the right or safer" way is welcoming more people to try it. I understand this pamplet is suppose to lower the rate of hospital visits, I just don't think this is the correct way to go about it.
i think this is a more of a help guide but its helping you to do the wrong thing. if they really wanted to help heroin addicts they would hand out rehab pamphlets with free information on rehabs. i think its like saying here is a pamphlet to properly fire a gun. We don't want you to have the guns but might as well know how to use it properly. it makes no sense to me. i think the money can be better used.
While it is indeed a good attempt to try and help those who are using drugs, I believe it is a worthless attempt. I believe that this type of flyer advertises drugs and makes it seem mych safer than it is to use. As pointed out in class in makes doing heroin seem almost "normal". I believe the only way we can truley help these people is by getting them off their addiction to drugs.
At first when i heard about this pamphlet Michael Bloomberg gave out, i was astonished by how stupid it was for him to do such a thing, i thought i was so wrong.
But after the discussion we had in class, i am sort of leaning the other way, i believe that i was okay for Michael Bloomberg to hand out these pamphlets because it saved even 5 people, the money spent on this would be worth it, it would cost a lot less to print pamphlets than to take every heroin over-dose victim to the hospital and stabilize them.
I also believe that, if you had never done heroin before, this pamphlet would not teach you how to do heroin, it is not a step by step of how to do it, its just a procedure that, if you happen to do it, you should be save.
Bloomberg said on Monday. "But our health department does have an interest in if you're going to do certain things to get you to do it as healthily as you possibly can."; according to my knowledge doing drugs especially heroin has never been healthy so there's no way you could do it as healthily as possible that's just outrageous.
Furthermore I disagree with Shah M. when she says "okay for Michael Bloomberg to hand out these pamphlets because it saved even 5 people, the money spent on this would be worth it, it would cost a lot less to print pamphlets than to take every heroin over-dose victim to the hospital and stabilize them."
The money that the city MIGHT POSSIBLY save is not guaranteed and could possibly just led to new heroin uses who might just over-dose even having been educated by the pamphlet. Therefore is the pamphlet completely worth saving those five heroin users and saving money just to start up new users? The second thought that comes to my mind is if they are going to make a safer usage of heroin pamphlet...fine, but the least they could do is make the thing a bit frightening. Even though there's one or two tips on getting help and how to drop the habit; the images shown on the pamphlet looks like any average Joe/Joanna. They should've written more risk factors to scare people away from doing the drug instead of displaying it as procedures on doing the heimlich maneuver.
Mayor Bloomberg's how to guide for taking heroin is something to question. One your sort of allowing the use of drugs in to the US and giving the ok for people to use it only to use it the safe way. Then again Bloomberg is thinking out of the box by doing this how to just so heroin addicts don't overdose and be put in the hospital causing us to spend more money on their medical bill. I feel that this how to can be looked at as both a good thing and a bad thing. The money used to put this how to together should've been used towards things that are far more important than this.
The title of this pamphlet just throws me completely off, '10 tips for safer use?'. It's obvious that there is no safe use of hero, and this guide can mislead anyone. To me this pamphlet makes heroin seem safe- if you follow these 10 steps. Obviously it's a waste of money, and no heroin addict cares enough about not sharing needles, or sanitizing anything. It's pointlesss!
This topic to me is mind boggling. That you can sit in a high school classroom and be given a pamphlet on how to do drugs "properly." This is only advertising people to do it the right way other than doing what they see on TV. The use of the money for this pamphlet is basically going in the garbage. Who as a heroin addict will even come across it. This isnt just advertised any where. Certain areas carry this source so the 70,000 copies will probably by seen by 7,000 herion addicts. Leaving the 63,000 copies to people that dont need know the "how to" for a drug they know they willnot use.
When I first heard about the how-to-book was on the radio and everybody thought this was a stupid idea and a waste of money. I really don't think a heroin user will look twice at this book. They would be more focused on finding their next fix. If I was a heroin user I would think this pamphlet does help me in any way because I'm already doing it so it's not teaching me anything I don't already know. I think this pamphlet might make the people who are curious about heroin start using. It gives you step by step instruction on how to do it so they're not going to have a hard time doing it. I don't think any good will come out of this.
I honestly think that this how to pamphlet was a dumb idea. Now you'll have people of any age, including children, doing heroine. Because there is a safer way to do it more people will start to. But people who are already drug addicts most likely will not pay attention to this pamphlet. The money used for this could have gone to something more useful or important.
I couldn't believe the idiocracy in the guide our Mayor wrote for using heroin the right way. If heroin is illegal in our country, why are we promoting how to use it correctly? What kind of example is this setting? I feel like it's only encouraging those who haven't tried heroin already to do so, because there is a safe way! ..
Mayor Bloomberg came up with the idea of having a safe guide for taking heroine. For drug users this a good thing because it gives them tips on how to use heroine in the correct way, but then again its a bad thing because it is encouraging drug users to take drugs. In my opinion this was a dumb idea because it is just giving drug users an okay to use that certain type of drug. This is a way for Bloomberg to ensure that everybody is healthy but taking drugs bring a health risk factor into peoples lives, so the idea of having this how-to guide for taking heroine was a bad idea overall.
The handing out the pamphlet on how to use heroin was stupid. I feel that the pamphlet was waste of money and paper. No heroin addict will want to read it and people who might think about doing heroin will learn how to do it. Also then plan that this pamphlet will save money is also false since using heroin properly wont reduce an over dose it will only prevent diseases. I think this was a plan was a good idea but instead of how to use drugs property they should of gave out a pamphlet on how to stop using heroin.
Well no offense to anybody but I think this was a good idea (sort of). I mean if you think about its not a waste of money because as Mr. Brown said in class these pamphlets cost $32,000 and if we just stop one person from coming in the hospital we will regain the money we used to make these pamphlets. Also the people who are doing drugs obviously doesn't care about there health and wont stop, so let NYC show them how to do it safely so we wont go deeper into our city's recession by paying for their hospital bills.
I was having a discussion about this with my cousins when i got home that afternoon. they basically said what majority of the class said. it came t my attention that all the money they used for this was a waist. the could be using this money for other important things, because hello we are in a resection now. however, i understand why Bloomberg would have this pamphlet made. we spoke about it in class how instead of having people with drug overdose in the hospital ( which basically they might not have insurance) it better for them to do it the correct way instead of leaving debts in hospitals.
This pamphlet was a waste of money and a waste of time. Mayor Bloomberg was dead wrong for thinking this crap was going to work and be productive. This pamphlet gives people who were curious the options to do heroin "SAFE". A positive idea would of been "Dont Do Drugs", this qoute has been around for years, why which it up.
I agree with the person who said this was a how-to guide instead of a resourceful means to a safer drug usage. If you are a person on heavy drugs or even lighter of drugs you don't really care about how people feel towards how safe or dangerous your drug usage is because you're using drugs in the first place which aren't healthy or good for your body any way.
I feel that if there were a person usinng heroin, that one day decided or came to grips with their drug abuse for what ever reason it may be but decides to give it up because of how harmful it is to their body or other medical reasons, and then they come across this how-to pamphlet and it shows them how to use heroin without the affects of however they may have injected it before they just enabled somebody who may not have wanted such a life any longer.
Or even if it was a person that used heroin, and didn't want to quit, by making a pamphlet on safer usage of their drug what are you contributing to them? I would rather prefer it be a pamphlet with a list full of numbers or hotlines on where to get help, not why to inject more. What people have to realize is that no maybe a person high on heroin or even that isn't high on heroin isn't going to want to read on it in the first place because it's their drug, they feel like they know it as well as they know themselves or another person, they aren't going to want to read someone else's opinion who may not have used it. They used it they know what it is, what it does, and how it feels, what can we teach them? But what we don't grasp to recognize is that everyday for this "user" isn't a good one... They aren't always in happy moods or the best of situations, and scenarios, don't you think? There can be a day where they got high and fell, and needed serious medical attention, or they were a parent on heroin, that just had their children taken away, or they injected heroin the wrong way, and they have a permanent scar or a constant pain in that specific area. They even under the influence aren't going to be happy with their current state, they aren't going to want to "praise" or "commend" this drug, they will more than likely feel a moment of resentment, and what my point is for any drug user's one unhappy moment or day that they curse this drug the fact that they could be able to find or pick up a pamphlet full of numbers on how to stop or drug rehabilitation programs or anything supporting a way to stop using drugs, which could lead to a domino effect because of how they're currently feeling against heroin, but can instead pick up a way to maybe NOT lead them to this scar, or life changing scenario, or pain in the irritated spot, and it can maybe somehow lead to a "happier", "safer" way to use heroin, and it just ins't right, and it doesn't help anyone's progression.
What I think bout the pamphlet 10 ways for safer use my fist thought was that it was on how to keep your self clean from the pictures I saw on the paper. For example how to wash your hands to protecting yourself from getting n1h1. So the whole thing took me a step back I understand Bloomberg had an idea ,but the wrong idea to stopping heroin use.He used hundreds of tax payers money just for pieces of paper handed to people who's not going to care what it says on it.
I think that Bloomberg’s pamphlet of how-to do Heroin is pretty hilarious. I kind of understand the thinking behind it but it’s still a little odd to me. I get that he is trying to tell people who do Heroin the right way to do it, even though they are using a dangerous drug. The point of it was to tell people the safest way possible to use. However I think that rather than making a How-to pamphlet he should have made a pamphlet that stated the risks and side affects that Heroin has on the body. Instead of sending the message that Heroin is bad but ya know some people do it, he should have instilled some fear in the people! This would make people hesitant to do the drug.
The whole idea of the pamphlet was completely a waste of money. The drug users already have their own methods of taking in heroin. The pamphlet does suggest a lot of helpful tips on how to be safe when doing so but the idea was just plainly stupid. But on the other hand,it was humorous. There were a few tips that I found funny. One was, jumping up and down to show your veins, the other one was to wash your hands before doing the procedure and last, always have a buddy with you when you're going to use just in case anything goes bad.
I believe that Mayor Bloomberg making the guide for how to take herion was really a waste of money. it wasted money and will have the wrong effect on people, and i believe that more people will try to do it because they think its safe now. bad move on the mayors part.
Do mayor bloomberg ever thinks about somethin else before he came up with the idea on heroin hero?the people that is already doing the drug knows how to do it but the people that wants to do is goin to follow his guide but if dey all wants to stop doin heroing hero how is dey goin to get help since mayor bloomberg came up with the idea how to guide for takin heroin but not how to get help on stop taking heroin hero. do mayor bloomberg want everybody healthy or drug up?
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