“Now, when you pull out the cash, you can do it whatever you want with that cash. Once you put that card in the ATM and you pull out the money, do whatever you want with the money.”
A new undercover report from O’Keefe Media Group has revealed how bodegas in New York City are allowing customers to use EBT cards to purchase drugs and alcohol against both federal and state law. The group went to numerous stores in the city, attempting to use an EBT card to purchase things like kratom, a sedative derived from trees with opioid-like properties, and were able to do so.
At one store, a journalist with OMG attempted to purchase kratom, with the store clerk running the EBT card as “EBT cash” instead of “EBT food.” Under federal law, EBT and SNAP benefits are only allowed to be used for eligible foods, with New York law stating the same. At other stores across the city, similar experiences took place, with store owners allowing them to use EBT cards to pay for the kratom.
James O’Keefe noted that they had been using EBT cards that don’t work. “The objective was merely to show that these smoke shop clerks are willing to make the attempt to sell these products using government-funded benefits. Even the attempt to do this is also a crime.”
O’Keefe called the number on the back of the EBT card to ask about the differences between EBT cash and EBT food. He asked, “I want to buy some kratom with by EBT cards, and they’re running it through as EBT cash. That’s allowed?” The man on the other end of the line said that using the cards to buy drugs was not allowed.
The man later explained, “Now, when you pull out the cash, you can do it whatever you want with that cash. Once you put that card in the ATM and you pull out the money, do whatever you want with the money.”
When O’Keefe asked outright, “Now I can pull out that cash from the EBT card and buy drugs with it,” the man replied, “whatever you want.”
O’Keefe said, “The EBT representative openly acknowledges that despite banning these cards from tobacco and beer purchases, some EBT cash users are able to pull out the cash from an EBT terminal and then do whatever they want with the cash anyway. It begs the question: What is even the point of any of these regulations if the user can simply pull out the cash and go buy a big bag of illegal drugs or alcohol or anything with government-funded cash.”
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