New Yorkers Irate Over Drug Devices Handout

(Ryan Deberardinis/Dreamstime)

Some residents of the Clinton Hill neighborhood in Brooklyn say they are tired of addicts doing drugs in plain sight on their street.

And they are fed up with a city-backed harm reduction group giving them the drug paraphernalia to do so, reported the New York Post.

Vocal-NY, a statewide grassroots membership organization that offers harm reduction services to people who use drugs in New York City, has been distributing free needles, crack pipes and devices to “cook” heroin every Wednesday at the entrance to the Clinton–Washington Avenue subway station on the C line, according to the Post.

Stephanie Cole, who lives next to the subway, told the Post the people taking the paraphernalia are “shooting up” in the open and she sees people use the free pipes to “smoke crack or whatever.”

“I’ve walked over broken crack pipes on our stoop and all kinds of garbage that gets left there. Two weeks ago, I was sweeping up broken glass from the pipes,” she added.

Another resident told the Post she’s seen needles and syringes on the ground near her home.

Vocal-NY has received millions of dollars from the city council, along with $800,000 from George Soros’ Open Society Foundations between 2020 and 2022 and $600,000 from the Ford Foundation between 2018 and 2022.

Alyssa Aguilera, co-executive director of Vocal-NY, told the news outlet, “In addition to passing out supplies, our outreach team also does its best to clean up outreach sites.”