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Drug users to be paid to stay sober
San Francisco's "Cash Not Drugs" proposal, under which certain residents would receive money to stay sober, is now closer to becoming reality after the city's Board of Supervisors passed the bill earlier this week.
SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco's "Cash Not Drugs" proposal, under which certain residents would receive money to stay sober, is now closer to becoming reality after the city's Board of Supervisors passed the bill earlier this week.
The bill gives welfare recipients a $100 city-issued gift card for each week they stay sober. Proponents of the plan call it a humane and effective way of dealing with the drug crisis plaguing San Francisco.
Supervisors Ahsha Safai, Dean Preston, Matt Dorsey, and Rafael Mandelman sponsored the bill.
Eligible recipients include those enrolled in the County Adult Assistance Program (CAAP). The Cash Not Drugs is completely voluntary and expected to last for three years.
"The underlying principle 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," Dorsey said on the steps of City Hall back in July.
Participants would be tested and paid weekly.
San Francisco could offer eligible residents cash to stay sober
San Francisco residents diagnosed with substance-use disorders might soon have a new cash incentive to stay sober.
A pilot program was launched in September 2023 with 22 patients. That program lasted 24 weeks.
In July, a Tenderloin resident and CAAP recipient told KTVU that if the program was approved, he would sign up for it. However, Zucco expressed doubt that the program would be effective long-term.
"I definitely think it would be a good short-term incentive to make some sort of an effort," Salvatore Zucco said at the time.
The Human Services Agency and the Department of Public Health have six months to start the Cash Not Drugs program.
KTVU reached out top the bill's sponsors and is waiting to hear back.