Los Angeles County has begun distributing pipes used for smoking crack, methamphetamine, and opioids to the homeless population, hoping to discourage them from overdosing by injecting themselves with fentanyl.
Fentanyl, which is laced in everything from weed to heroin and meth, was present in more than half of the nearly 1,500 overdose deaths of homeless people in 2020-21. In response, Los Angeles County this year increased its harm reduction budget from $5.4 million to $31.5 million.
The risk in fentanyl overdoses is that addicts inject typically their entire supply of the drug in one sitting; smoking a drug takes longer and lowers the chance of an overdose, supporters of the pipe program say.