Minnesotas Democratic lieutenant governor and Senate hopeful Peggy Flanagan is under fire for overseeing millions in taxpayer-funded grants to a harm reduction nonprofit that distributes graphic booty bumping drug kits and promotes other extreme drug-use practices under the banner of public health.
According to the Washington Free Beacon, the controversy stems from a $100 million grant package announced by Flanagan and Gov. Tim Walz, ostensibly aimed at Minnesotans facing homelessness, which folded in expansive funding for drug-related harm reduction initiatives. In rolling out the program, Flanagan declared that "These grants will ensure that everyone can access the supports they need to find and secure safe, stable housing," language that critics say masks a radical approach to drug use that goes far beyond traditional social services.
Central to the backlash is Southside Harm Reduction Services, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit that the WalzFlanagan administration showcased as a model grantee. The group says it "promotes the health and wellbeing of drug users" by distributing paraphernalia such as syringes, sterile water, and drug cookers so addicts can get high "safely," a philosophy that many conservatives argue normalizes and entrenches addiction rather than encouraging sobriety and responsibility.
Among Southsides most controversial offerings are free booty bumping or boofing kits, which provide lube and other supplies to help users ingest drugsincluding heroin, meth, and ketamine"through the rectum (anus, butthole)." In a further twist that alarms election-integrity advocates, the state of Minnesota requires Southside to hand out voter registration materials alongside these kits, effectively merging fringe drug culture with civic outreach under state sponsorship.
On its website and social media, Southside touts booty bumping as a supposedly safer and more efficient way to get high, emphasizing the speed and intensity of the drugs effect. Booty bumping helps drugs "reach the bloodstream quickly," allowing users to "reach a high faster than some other routes of administration," Southside Harm Reduction says, a selling point that underscores how deeply the group is invested in facilitating drug use rather than curbing it.
The organization also provides explicit instructions that read more like a how-to manual than a health warning. "Try to poop before. This is so your drugs are absorbed better," Southside Harm Reduction Services advises in a pamphlet contained in the kits, adding, "Stand, squat, or lay on your side in a comfortable position. It never hurts to have a boofing buddy!"
Even within the harm reduction community, the practice is contentious because of its heightened risk profile. Since rectal administration bypasses much of the digestive system and sends drugs rapidly into the bloodstream, experts acknowledge that it can significantly increase the likelihood of fatal overdoses, raising questions about why taxpayers are underwriting such experimentation.
State spending records show that Minnesota has funneled $7.9 million in grants and contracts to Southside Harm Reduction Services since 2023, a staggering sum for a group focused on facilitating drug use. In 2024 alone, the administration awarded $432,000 to Southside to provide "low-barrier access" to harm reduction supplies, a move the Washington Free Beacon first spotlighted during Walz's failed vice presidential bid.
The financial pipeline did not stop there. On Oct. 1, 2025, the administration signed a $2.5 million contract with Southside to supply and stock "outdoor vending machines" that operate "24/7" and dispense Narcan, "safer use" supplies, and "hygiene items," though the contract does not specify whether the booty bumping kits are included under the safer use label commonly used in harm reduction literature.
Flanagans stewardship of state funds has already been a major liability in her Senate campaign, with critics pointing to a broader pattern of mismanagement and lax oversight. She and Walz previously directed hundreds of millions of dollars to Feeding Our Future, a nonprofit that later emerged at the center of a massive kickback scheme involving dozens of Somali nationals who looted a state-funded food distribution program.
Republican Senate candidate Michele Tafoya has seized on these scandals to portray Flanagan as reckless with public money and indifferent to fraud. "This historic fraud happened under her watch, and suddenly, she's looking out for Medicaid and SNAP? Sell it to someone else, Peggy," Tafoya said at a debate last week, framing the Democrats newfound concern for entitlement integrity as political theater rather than genuine reform.
Southsides activities extend beyond booty bumping into other high-risk behaviors that many Minnesotans would not expect their tax dollars to underwrite. The group promotes "slamming," a practice popular in parts of the gay community in which users inject methamphetamine while having sex, a combination that magnifies both health and addiction dangers.
"If you like slamming it makes a lot of sense to learn how to do it well. This section explains where to inject, the injecting process and technique, and all of the equipment you will need," reads a brochure linked on Southsides website, whose cover features a naked, muscular man holding a giant syringe. For voters already uneasy about rising drug deaths, homelessness, and the erosion of traditional norms, the image of a state-backed nonprofit glamorizing hardcore drug use while distributing voter forms crystallizes a broader concern: under progressive leadership, Minnesotas government appears more committed to enabling destructive lifestyles than to restoring order, accountability, and genuine recovery.
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