SAN FRANCISCO (TND) — Adam Nathan, board chair for The Salvation Army San Francisco, criticized the city’s managed alcohol program last week for distributing drinks to people addicted to alcohol.
The initiative aims to stabilize drinking patterns while providing housing, medical supervision and social support to alleviate severe alcohol use, poverty and homelessness.
“The whole thing is very odd to me," Nathan wrote on X Tuesday. "Providing free drugs to drug addicts doesn’t solve their problems. It just stretches them out. Where’s the recovery in all of this?”The program is based out of a closed Tenderloin neighborhood hotel, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Nathan claimed it costs $2 million in public funds annually and was formed without any public input.
“I’m no doctor or ‘expert’ on issues of drug policy. But I am a taxpayer,” Nathan said. “When did this Managed Alcohol Program get approved? Where were the public hearings? Why is it hidden away in an old hotel? Who approved a $2 million budget for it?”
San Francisco started the initiative in 2020, pointing to Canada’s use of similar programs. Shannon Smith-Bernardin, president of the National Sobering Collaborative and writer for the California Health Care Foundation, partnered with San Francisco County to pilot it. She argued at the time hotels provided alcoholism-mitigating services while protecting against COVID-19 infection.
“Providing the level of observation and intervention that’s necessary to prevent withdrawal is not feasible for most of these hotels,” Smith-Bernardin told the foundation. “So we are piloting one of the country’s first managed alcohol programs where we complete an assessment at intake in the hotel, and then provide alcohol on a scheduled basis a few times a day."
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Canada established several managed alcohol programs by 2019, according to the University of Victoria. The country also prescribes addicts medications like opioids, stimulants and benzodiazepines as alternatives to illegal drugs. Canada has said that “safer supply” services lead to lower overdose rates, less emergency room visits and reduced infections, a point Nathan opposes.
“There’s currently a huge debate in Canada about this idea as British Columbia has been ‘expirimenting’ [sic] on humans by giving them free Opioids in the hopes that they won’t use fentanyl or worse,” he wrote. “The results have been mixed at best and bad at worst.”Nathan claimed providing "free alcohol" to struggling individuals "doesn't feel right,” asking his nearly 15,000 followers whether they agreed.
The San Francisco Department of Public Health told The National Desk (TND) Monday the city's managed alcohol program "has been misrepresented on social media" while "overlooking a highly vulnerable patient population served by a program that gets them off the streets and on a path to stability.”
“The MAP stabilizes individuals with severe alcohol use disorder, who are often at end stage alcohol use disorder and have severe health and cognitive issues or impairments, to get them to the next level of care," the department said. “However, leaving them unhoused and without care leads to significant harm for the individual and significant impact on our health care system and community.”
The San Francisco Fire Department echoed the sentiments, telling TND it "know[s] all too well the frequency with which individuals with severe alcohol use disorder require emergency medical services" and that the city's program "has proven to be an incredibly impactful intervention in reducing unnecessary 911 activations and responses, emergency department visits, and hospital admissions.”
Follow Ray Lewis on X for trending national news @rayjlewis or send a tip to rjleiws@sbgtv.com.
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