Texas welfare agency lets crack pipe vendor take food stamps

DALLAS – Anybody want to buy a crack pipe with food stamps?

I know a place in South Dallas we could try. It’s a little market off Bonnie View Road with a case full of glass pipes for various vices up front, and it’s been authorized by the state to accept payment by Lone Star card, which Texas uses to distribute funds from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

That money’s supposed to be used for food, which is why the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires retailers accepting SNAP funds to certify that at least half their sales are from certain food items, or failing that, that no more than 10 percent of their revenue comes from “alcoholic beverages, legalized games of chance, sexually oriented materials, coin-operated amusement machines, or amusement services.”

You might figure that a market with the words “beer” or “wine” or both right in the store name is unlikely to meet either standard, that it’s in the business of getting people faded, not fed.

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