Former NYPD Commissioner Slams NYC Initiative to Offer Vending Machines for Drug Addicts

Former NYPD Commissioner Slams NYC Initiative to Offer Vending Machines for Drug Addicts

 By: Serach Nissim 

Former NYC top cop Bill Bratton condemned New York City’s new street vending machine accommodations for drug addicts.

As reported by NY Post, Mayor Eric Adams administration’s health officials have installed a street vending machine in Brownsville, Brooklyn, offering free druggie items—including crack pipes and other equipment to smoke drugs, strips to test if drugscontain potentially deadly fentanyl, and NARCAN to try to revive people if they overdose.  The vending machine was installed in early June, with plans to soon add three more similar ones in other drug-filled neighborhoods of NYC.

Bratton, who previously served two terms as NYPD commissioner, slammed the initiative.  “The world has turned upside down,” Bratton said in an interview with John Catsimatidis on WABC770 AM’s ‘The Cats Roundtable’.  “Instead of trying to get people away from drugs, we have policies now where we have vending machines to encourage them to stay on drugs. ‘We’re going to make it safer for you to use drugs so you can spend the rest of your life not trying to get off drugs but to stay on drugs.’”

“What happens when you stay on drugs? You want the next high. …You graduate from marijuana … to heroin. …That’s the problem with addiction,” Bratton fumed. “There’s never enough drugs. There’s never enough high. That’s effectively what we as a government are starting to support.”  Bratton, 75, said that NY’s legalization of the recreational use of marijuana is a mistake, and that things are getting worse in NY.  “I was just in Italy for two weeks on vacation … I did not smell marijuana for two weeks … Boom! As soon as you get back to [New York], it hits you in the face.”

Bratton said the legalization has led to easing up on illegal pot throughout the city,and encourages youth to make light of the illegal and dangerous substance.  He said the illegal market has now grown out of control.  “They have created a climate where anything goes,” Bratton said.  “Kids now 12, 13, 14, 15 can get ahold of [marijuana].It’s so readily available. If we’re selling it illegally in 1,200 shops around the city, do you think they care who’s coming in to buy it? They’re not checking for IDs. It’s a cash business. The city has totally lost control over it. The state has lost control over it.” Bratton, a Democrat, has openly blamed left-leaning politicians for progressive legislation including legalizing marijuana and cashless bail reform.

Per the Post, City Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan defended the vending machine installed in Brooklyn, saying it will help New Yorkers stay safer.  “Every three hours, we’re losing a New Yorker [to drugs]. And it looks like 2022 is on track to be our highest year ever in overdoses,’’ Vasan said at the time.  “We have a rising tide of fentanyl, and now we have other substances entering our drug supply, which is really putting us behind the eight ball.”

This month, Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state legislature approved a law to increase fines for shops selling illegal cannabis, and to make it easier to shut them down.  The overwhelming number of shops that have opened up in the past two years, however, will make regulation a daunting job.