Welcome Bums To San Francisco -or- Free Smokes, Dope, and Booze For All!

[dales]

The San Francisco Department of Public Health said in a statement that in some cases "limited quantities" of alcohol, marijuana and tobacco are being provided through private funding to addicts in isolation and quarantine under the city's program housing homeless people in hotels. The substances are administered with the guidance of licensed physicians.

"Managed alcohol and tobacco use makes it possible to increase the number of guests who stay in isolation and quarantine and, notably, protects the health of people who might otherwise need hospital care for life-threatening alcohol withdrawal," SFDPH said in a statement.

The city's practice was recently brought up in Twitter and a lively discussion quickly followed. Many presumed the city was using taxpayer dollars to provide the drugs.


SFDPH jumped in, tweeting that administering the drugs is a harm-reduction technique aimed at helping people successfully complete quarantine.

The city also clarified that the drugs are not being paid for with taxpayer money.

San Francisco has undertaken a major effort to house people experiencing homelessness amid the coronavirus pandemic and has established a number of alternative housing options, including private hotels, congregate sites, trailers and recreational vehicles.

As of Thursday, the city has placed more than 700 people living on the streets in housing, and more rooms are being prepared, according to the city's data tracker. Individuals over age 60 and with underlying health conditions are receiving priority for housing.


Before guests enter isolation, they're screened to determine their substance addictions and asked whether they'd like support to reduce or stop their use.

"Many isolation and quarantine guests tell us they use substances daily, and this period in our care has allowed some people to connect for the first time with addiction treatment and harm reduction therapy," SFDPH said in a statement.
SFDPH said staff do not "facilitate purchases of recreational cannabis," but in a few cases they have helped guests buy medical marijuana. Also, methadone can be provided to those with opioid-use disorder

[RayThom]

It sounds like it's time for...



Incidentally, this is how I gave up chain smoking in '72, and alcohol and drugs in '81. I never went back to any of it.

It's the best of all addiction quitting plans but ya' gotta' wanna' bad enough.

[Lord Jim]

Welcome Bums To San Francisco -or- Free Smokes, Dope, and Booze For All!

I wish you hadn't mentioned this Dale...

I really didn't was Daren moving to SF...

[BoSoxGal]

It would be profoundly stupid from a public health perspective to put a bunch of alcoholics into DTs requiring supportive ICU beds for a very large percentage in the midst of a pandemic. As to the tobacco and cannabis smokers - it’s clearly about keeping them home and indoors - a critical need that for me overrides any moral outrage over addicts getting their fix with some assistance from my tax dollars. We’d save many billions yearly in tax funds if we treated addiction as a public health issue rather than a criminal one. Americans only spread addiction hurt farther and wider with our Puritan approach to substance disorder.

[dales]

…. our Puritan approach to substance disorder.

It's 2020. where have you been?

The "Harm Reduction Model" has been in use for decades.

[BoSoxGal]

I've been in the criminal justice system where the overwhelming approach to substance use disorder is punitive punishment based with treatment and harm reduction getting not much more than lip service except for the odd treatment court, few and far between.