No Spoofing, County Promotes “Boofing”
I have to admit, “boofing” is a term that I had never heard before. I remember my parents telling me that if you pay attention, you can learn something new every day. I still believe that’s true, although I wish this nugget of knowledge didn’t exist.
Last month, the Health Department for Multnomah County, which encompasses Portland and seven other cities in Oregon, spent in excess of $84,000 on drug paraphernalia and items that assist in drug use. One of the items purchased, using taxpayer’s dollars of course, were pamphlets that instructed addicts on how to administer drugs via their anus, a technique known as “boofing.”
Boofing is also called booty bumping, hooping, plugging, butt chugging, or UYB (up your but). People most commonly boof heroin, methamphetamine, or cocaine, but almost any drug can be used this way including alcohol. Taking drugs anally provides a much faster high because the drugs are infused into the blood stream more directly. This is why suppositories are an effective medical treatment.
According to “Know Oregon’s Independent Newspaper” (KOIN), the boofing guide cost $5 and was supplied by Sessi Kuwabara Blanchard, a transgender biological male law student, Rubin-Presser Social Justice Fellow, a Conwell Scholar at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law and a self-proclaimed addicts rights activist.
Blanchard describes the pamphlet as a “harm reduction guide for boofing.” The act was characterized as “the holy act of putting drugs up your butt.”
Most of the money was spent on the purchase of a wide variety of pipes, including bubble, stem, hammer and meth types. Overall, 55,404 pipes were purchased at a cost of $42,966. In addition 200,000 copper scouring pads and brass screens were purchased for $21,613. Aluminum foil was an additional $7,250. The health department spent approximately $8,000 for items designed to prevent users from bloodborne illnesses, Which included $6,820 for rubber mouthpieces, just over $1,300 for Chapstick and $300 for 200,000 chopsticks. In case you’re wondering, chopsticks are used to tamp down the pipe filters. As if that isn’t enough taxpayer’s money to waste, KOIN reports that originally the health department placed an order for in excess of $30,000 worth of Chapstick, but the supplier was unable o meet the demand.
The residents in the area were against the purchases and expressed concern over rising overdose rates. In spite of their opposition, the county still purchased the supplies. Since then, outrage has risen to the point that officials have temporally halted the program.
Sarah Dean is the spokesperson for the Multnomah County Health Department. She explained that the supplies were paid for using “surplus funding from the county’s syringe budget.” She went on to state that board members had ample opportunity to voice their concerns prior to approval of the purchase.
She added: “All methods of drug use can cause injury, elevate risk for infectious disease and cause cross-contamination and/or exposure to a drug they did not intend to ingest, harm reduction may help.”
The residents were not the only people upset with the decision; even the liberal Portland City Council questioned the manner in which it was handled, with ultra liberal Mayor Ted Wheeler suggesting that it would further enable fentanyl addicts.
Any program that aids continued addiction by enabling the addict is destined for failure. It’s time for the responsibility to be placed back on the individual. Confined detox programs can be offered, but if they refuse help and choose the wrong path, providing the drug that is destroying their life is not the answer. Addiction can only be overcome when the individual makes the choice to change.
Tough love brings them to that realization faster than prolonging their misery.
