Christian Smith
(NewsNation) – San Francisco offers a $5 million program for homeless alcoholics to receive free alcohol. The city says it is Managed Alcohol Program exists to help stabilize alcohol consumption patterns.
While the program has supporters who say it works, it has drawn criticism from local leaders.
Reducing Severe Alcohol Use
The San Francisco Department of Public Health described MAP as “interventions that aim to reduce the harms of serious alcohol use, poverty, and homelessness.”
For the past four years, the program has provided temporary housing, medical supervision and alcohol injections for those seeking help. These are all tools that organizers use in hopes of helping stabilize alcohol consumption patterns for people with severe addiction.
The goal is to keep them out of jail and the emergency room.
The Show Makes Things Worse: Critics
Critics believe the program is only making things worse and that taxpayer money should not go toward funding alcoholics.
Adam Nathan, chairman of the Salvation Army San Francisco Metro Advisory Board, posted on X: “Did you know that San Francisco spends $2 million a year on a ‘Managed Alcohol Program?’ It provides free alcohol to people who struggle with chronic alcoholism and who are mostly homeless.”
He criticized the program, asking why “every public health dollar” was not going toward preventing and treating drug overdoses.
“Our Public Health department is keeping people sick instead of working to make them healthy,” Nathan posted.
Addictions expert Amara Durham questioned whether giving homeless alcoholics more alcohol is the best approach.
“Where is the medical oversight for when someone reaches that tipping point and is overserved because they come in and have their last drink that pushes them to the edge of this facility?” Durham told NewsNation. “I’m not sure where the evidence-based research behind this plan is. I also look at this and say, if we treated these alcoholics like addicts, then we would find a non-addictive substitute that would help their brain in a comparable way.”
O Chronicle of San Francisco reported that public health officials said that alcohol is dispensed by a nurse and that not just anyone can access alcohol; only those who are housed and enrolled in the program can receive treatment.
Tom Wolf, recovery advocacy director at the West Coast Initiatives Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions, told NewsNation the city should strive to promote recovery, not keep people addicted.
A similar controversial show in Canada called “Safer supply” has been in place for some time with uncertain results. Canada’s program focuses primarily on substance abuse with drugs.
NewsNation reached out to the San Francisco Department of Public Health for comment but has not yet received a response.
