SF Mayor Breed Proposes Plan to Give $100 A Week to Welfare Recipients For Negative Drug Tests

“I want to make it just as easy to get treatment as it is to go out there and buy dope,” said Breed on Monday. “Whatever it takes to get people on the right path. That’s what we need to do.

“Some of you also know that I lost my sister to a drug overdose. She was down in the streets of the Tenderloin. It was definitely very difficult to get her the help she needs. I want to make it just as easy to get treatment, as it is to go out there and buy dope.”

Cash Not Drugs backlash

Dorsey added that he hoped that the legislation would help cut back on the number of overdoses, saying that “If we can make progress to help people get on the other side of their addiction, we will see progress on all kinds of things , from street conditions to retail theft to, hopefully and most importantly, reversing the level of overdoses. The underlying principal to ‘Cash Not Drugs’ is a simple one: a humane and effective approach to San Francisco’s drug crisis should also include rewarding good behavior and not just punishing bad behavior.

“Contingency management has been researched and studied for decades, and it is considered one of the most effective behavioral interventions for initiating and maintaining abstinence from drugs.”

While the program was brought out to much fanfare on Monday, critics quickly pointed out flaws in the proposal. Many noted that the voluntary nature of the plan would severely undercut how many people could be saved from potential overdoses. An issue of giving money to potential drug addicts was another worry, as was the pilot program being expensive and lasting three years – right in the middle of a $789 million city deficit.

“The ‘Cash Not Drugs’ legislation is being seen as pretty toothless,” said Rachel Garcia, a pollster who covers Marin County, San Francisco County and San Mateo County, to the Globe on Tuesday. “The big problem is that it is voluntary. He was right in saying that contingency management and rewarding good behavior are effective in fighting drug abuse. They are. But you need to have everyone on board to make it work. There are some drug users where $100 gets them enough drugs for one or two days, especially fentanyl. This incentive means nothing for them. Or worse, gives them the money needed to take a bad dose and O.D.

“And that is what is a potential bomb here. If someone overdoses, and they trace that money back to the city because the drug user waited enough time to get a clean test and then overdosed because they weren’t ready for it, then they are going to panic. It will make headlines.

“Plus add in how much this program will cost. A hundred a week for a bunch of users? This can rack up fast. If you made it involuntary, and showed how it could be offset by how much those drug users are costing the city, then you can make a good case.

“No polls are on this yet, although people love Prop F. But from a Twitter keyword search, people are not liking the cost, are not liking how it is voluntary, and especially don’t like their tax dollars going to drug users. And this is an election year for Breed. She’s showing she is trying, but it is also making a lot of voters mad. Her opponents can now easily say she is trying to give money to drug users for not taking drugs. And many will like what they are saying.”

The proposal was made official later on Tuesday, with Dorsey formally introducing it to the Board of Supervisors.