The Issue: The city’s decision to put drug paraphernalia in free dispensing machines.
Now we’re installing street vending machines dispensing free drug products to addicts (“This is the vend,” June 6)? Who’s Mayor Adams kidding? I voted for him.
God help us.
Schellie Hagan
Brooklyn
This isn’t April Fool’s Day, but the NYC taxpayer is the butt of the joke here. Eleven thousand dollars for a vending machine that in a matter of days will be smashed and its contents up for sale on the street.
Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan must see the sky in a different color from the rest of us. This “tool” to save those with addiction only gives free rein for them to continue.
If the commissioner really wants to start with a plan, start by attacking the issue head-on: Find the money the de Blasio administration had for mental-health concerns and use it in a positive way, instead of as yet another taxpayer burden gone wrong.
Doc Ludemann
Bridgeport, Conn.
As an addict in recovery (opiods/alcohol), I can say that the only thing these vending machines will provide is an endless debate, in this case among people who are high.
They’ll be arguing about whether extracting enough Narcan can give their high a boost.
Kathryn Ruskin
Boynton Beach, Fla.
All you have to do is have a visual of an overdosing, scrambling drug abuser or his companion fumbling with the machine to dispense Narcan to realize the insanity of such a preposterous remedy.
The health commissioner ought to return to the drawing board and do some more credible brainstorming.
Ronald G. Frank
West Orange, NJ
Vending machines for drug addicts will encourage drug abuse rather than preventing it.
This is an egregious mistake made by this horrible administration; just as with the state legalizing marijuana.
The city continues to fall and all Adams is worried about is his next night out.
The federal government flails, as does our state government at each and every level.
The American people have, with good reason, lost all faith in every level of our government.
Allison Luke
Rockville Centre
The Issue: A city crackdown on street barbecues as other crimes run rampant.
Whoever came up with the idea that eliminating barbecues will curb gun violence is not qualified for their job (“Throw a crimp on the barbie!” June 4). This is an absurd notion.
How about dealing with the actual problem? Put criminals in jail, and keep them there for a really long time.
Outlaw guns, period. If you feel you need to defend yourself, then put up your dukes.
If you’re a sick individual that feels the need to hunt to get your rocks off? Let me just say that the world would be a better place without people who think that murdering animals is a sport.
Lastly, dismantle the NRA. All cults are a sick thing.
Give Wayne LaPierre, Lauren Boebert and all the other Republican gun nuts the boot.
Then have a real American barbecue.
Kreg Ramone
Manhattan
I now realize that lenient bail laws are not the issue when it come to rising crime. The real cause is the grilling of hamburgers and hotdogs on the streets!
Luckily, the new “broken windows” strategy of Mayor Adams and Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell to stop these barbecues will help reduce the crime problem.
William J. Carroll
Woodside
