F: Illegal Substance Dependence Screening and Treatment for Recipients of City Public Assistance
No: This measure requires recipients of low-income direct-cash transfers to undergo drug testing, and if found positive, to be denied benefits.
On the surface the aims seem noble: reduce drug use to aid impoverished San Franciscans. Unfortunately, if you actually want to solve drug dependency issues and homelessness, decades of policy research shows in practice this sort of policy just doesn’t work (the Republican Congress in the 90s tried this), and worse, can have the opposite effect. Program space is limited for treatment programs. There is a room for making treatment a more likely option for those on the street, but this isn’t the solution. Instead, it smells like a messaging exercise from the Mayor and others to show they’re “doing things” before the November election, with so many carve-outs because they too know it risks making our problems worse.
Let’s focus on what’ll actually solve these issues, not some public relations game.