San Francisco Mayor London Breed has suggested giving an extra $100 a week to drug-addicted welfare recipients if they stay sober.
Breed and Supervisor Matt Dorsey penned a bill called “Cash Not Drugs” which proposes handing out $100, in the form of a gift card or electronic benefit transfer, to some welfare recipients for each negative drug test they complete a week, they announced Monday.
The proposed legislation utilizes “contingency management” practices, a type of behavioral therapy that reinforces positive changes through reward, and participation would be voluntary.
“The underlining principle of ‘Cash Not Drugs’ is a simple one. A humane and effective approach to San Franscip’s drug crisis should also include rewarding good behavior and not just punishing bad behavior,” said Dorsey, who is several years sober after batting his own addiction for a quarter century.
Breed, who lost her own sister to a drug overdose, said one of the main goals of the bill is to save lives as the city — and the country — is plagued by the deadly fentanyl crisis.
“I want to make it just as easy to get treatment as it is to go out there and buy dope,” Breed said at a press conference, joined 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 she went directly to substance recovery organizations to seek feedback on how to help those struggling to get sober.
“Getting people clean and sober. Getting them on the right path so they can take care of themselves and be supported and lifted up … That’s what this is about. We are finally listening to the recovery community.”
The bill offers a mirror initiative to the recent voter-passed program Proposition F that allows the city to withhold monthly cash aid from the city’s some 5,200 welfare recipients if they test positive for illicit drugs and refuse to partake in a free treatment program, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
They will only be denied payments if they refuse treatment — not if they test positive.
The proposition appeared on voters’ ballots in March and is set to take effect on Jan. 1.
The near-opposite to the proposition, the “Cash Not Drugs” program, which is optional, would give those abstaining from drug use a $100 weekly bonus on top of their existing cash payments.
The legislation needs to be endorsed by the full Board of Supervisors to become law. If it gets support, it would run first a three-year pilot program through a partnership between the Department of Health and the Human Services Agency.
The pilot’s success would be assessed by an outside, independent organization that would publicly report its findings each year of the program.
