D.C.'s Free Condoms Found To Be Cheap and Shoddy

Mad Professah has been reporting about the free condoms distributed by cities like New York ("Who's Having More Sex? Angelenos or New Yorkers?") and Washington, D.C. for quite awhile now.

This week comes word that all is not well with the free D.C. condoms. NO, they're not too small for denizens of "The Chocolate City." (Well, maybe for some of them.) Or too big! Turns out they're just too damned cheap:

Tens of thousands of condoms provided free by the District to curb HIV-AIDS have been returned to the health department because of complaints that their paper packaging is easily damaged and could render the condoms ineffective.

Volunteers concerned about why interest had dropped began asking people who had picked up the condoms. They were told about packets ripping in purses or bursting open in pockets. As a result, recipients said they had little confidence that the condoms would offer protection.

In addition, expiration dates on some of the Chinese-made condoms were illegible.

"People were saying, 'These packets aren't any good,' " said Franck DeRose, executive director of an organization called the Condom Project, one of those involved in the grass-roots distribution system. A coalition that includes the Condom Project sent back 100,000 condoms to the city, about 15 percent of what the city says has been passed out to groups.

[...]

Concerns arose almost immediately after the program began. In interviews yesterday, officials at nearly half a dozen organizations that had been dispensing the condoms said they had received negative feedback from clients. Many said that the packaging seemed shoddy, they said.

The excerpt above is from the Washington Post article on the story which was printed on Wednesday September 5th ("Concerns Affect D.C. Condom Giveaway"). The next day, D.C. Department of Health officials responded with a statement in which Dr. Gregg Pane is quoted saying "DC condoms are safe and reliable and meet all standards for quality."