San Francisco Mayor London Breed has offered welfare recipients with drug addictions an extra $100 a week if they stay sober.
Governor Brady and Supervisor Matt Dorsey have authored a bill called “Cash Not Drugs,” which proposes giving some welfare recipients $100 in the form of gift cards or electronic payments for each negative drug test they receive each week. Announced on Monday.
The proposed bill would utilize “contingency management” techniques, a type of behavioral therapy that reinforces positive change through rewards, and participation would be voluntary.
“The fundamental principle of Cash Not Drugs is simple: A humane and effective approach to San Francisco’s drug crisis must include rewarding good behavior as well as punishing bad behavior,” said Dorsey, who has battled drug addiction for a quarter century and has been sober for the past few years.
Breed, who lost her sister to a drug overdose, said one of the bill’s main goals is to save lives as the city — and the country — struggles with a deadly fentanyl crisis.
“We want to make it as easy to get treatment as it is to go out and buy drugs,” Breed said at a news conference attended by dozens of people in recovery.
“Whatever it takes to get people on the right path, that’s what we need to do,” Breed said.
The mayor said he visited drug recovery organizations in person to get their input on how to help people struggling with drug addiction recovery.
“Getting people clean and sober. Getting them on the right path so they can take care of themselves, feel supported and empowered… that’s what this is about. We’re finally listening to the recovery community.”
The measure presents an initiative similar to the recently passed Proposition F program that would allow the city to withhold monthly cash assistance from the city’s roughly 5,200 welfare recipients if they test positive for illegal drugs and refuse to participate in a free treatment program. According to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Payment will only be denied if the patient refuses treatment, not if the patient tests positive.
The proposal will be placed on voter ballots in March and is set to take effect on Jan. 1.
Nearly the opposite of this proposal is the voluntary “Cash Not Drugs” program, which would give people who abstain from drug use a $100 weekly bonus on top of their existing cash payments.
The bill needs approval from the full state board of regulators before it can become law. If it receives support, it would begin as a three-year pilot program in collaboration with the Department of Health and Social Services.
The success of the pilot program will be evaluated by an external, independent organization, which will publish its results annually for the life of the program.
