SF mayor introduces new bill to gives ‘drug-addicted welfare recipients’ an extra $100 in cash per week if they pass a drug test

August 2, 2024 by Olivia Murray

Another great idea from who else, but California progressives.

I experienced the briefest moment of shock when I read that bona fide and known drug addicts were in fact allowed to enroll for welfare benefits, but then I realized this is California about which we’re speaking, so in the same vein, the fact that it gets worse than that is entirely unsurprising: progressive Democrats in San Francisco have just introduced a new city bill that would pay “drug-addicted welfare recipients” an extra $100 in cash each week they can pass a drug test and pee clean.

[Mayor London] 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, theyannounced Monday.

…

‘The underlining principle of ‘Cash Not Drugs’ is a simple one. A humane and effective approach to San Franscip’s [sic] drug crisis should also include rewarding good behavior and not just punishing bad behavior,’ said Dorsey, who is several years sober after batting [sic] his own addiction for a quarter century.

I’m sure there won’t be any cheating, and the drug addicts with the cash incentive dangling carrot won’t figure out how to game the system—Breed and Dorsey’s proposal should just be called “Cash FOR Drugs” considering what it is obviously going to become.

Speaking to the motivation for the bill, Breed reportedly told members of the media, “I want to make it just as easy to get treatment as it is to go out there and buy dope.” Lady, handing cash to drug addicts doesn’t count as treatment, and dope-buying is going to become even easier considering you’re suggesting we hand cash to drug addicts.

Of course, those of us who critically analyze public problems all know exactly how to solve the fentanyl crisis branching into communities across the nation—cut down the trunk and grind the stump. Fentanyl is an imported malady, meaning the flow of drugs could be stemmed, and that starts with closing what used to be the southern border; that’s the first place to start. Take a look at these statistics, from a report at National Immigration Forum this past October:

CBP data also shows illicit fentanyl smuggling is increasing, and that most of the fentanyl seized by the Border Patrol and OFO is coming across the southern border. Border officials seized 4,600 pounds of fentanyl along the southern border in 2020, a number that skyrocketed to 26,700 pounds in FY 2023 – a 480 percent increase. Most of the fentanyl seized by the two agencies in FY 2023, about 98.9 percent (26,700 out of 27,000 pounds), was seized at the southern border.

Now, apparently San Francisco already hands out cold hard cash to drug-addicts, currently around 5,200 people, and starting January 1st, these payments may be withheld if these cash recipients test positive and refuse “treatment, not if they simply test positive.

So, we the taxpayers are paying for these drug addicts’ fentanyl bills, and we’re paying for any detox and rehabilitation programs in which they might participate, we’re paying for cash bonuses when they’re not high, we’re paying for the urine test, and of course we’re paying for the bureaucracy and government offices/staff to implement this program.

Boy are we getting screwed.

Here’s what someone in the comments quipped:

I’ve got an even simpler idea: Just pay me not to commit crimes. For every day that I am not arrested, help me pay my rent and other expenses. If you refuse, well then I can’t guarantee that I won’t destroy the neighborhood and assault fellow citizens. Look upon it as reparations.

Sardonically poignant, but I have even better ideas—simply defund these programs, close the border entirely, let drug addiction run its course, leave charity up to the consenting charitable, and let each person keep the money that he and/or she earned.

Pipe dream, I know.