The city’s Health Department is coming under fire from politicians and anti-drug advocates for distributing a sixteen-page pamphlet to addicts that provides detailed tips on how to safely, and efficiently, shoot up heroin. The Health Department claims the information will save lives, but City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., who has vowed to put a stop to the pamphlet, says, “It sends a message to our youth: Give it a try.” The irony is that, had this not become a scandal, none of “our youth” would have ever known about the pamphlet to begin with nor, probably, of the existence of pamphlets in general. [NYP]
