(Discern Media)—The City of San Francisco has decided to take a rather peculiar approach to address the issue of homeless alcoholics. They’ve initiated a “Managed Alcohol Program,” which, in the most cynical sense, can be summed up as providing free beer and vodka shots to homeless individuals suffering from alcohol addiction. This program, funded by the taxpayer’s hard-earned dollars, is a part of a little-known pilot program.
Experts claim that this program can save lives or at least prolong them. But let’s be honest here, it’s not like the city is investing in their recovery or sobriety. Instead, they’re simply making sure these individuals stay off the streets and out of emergency services, which apparently saves the city a few bucks.
The Managed Alcohol Program, or MAP, was first introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic to keep vulnerable homeless individuals who were placed in isolation in hotel rooms from experiencing alcohol withdrawal. Now, it has expanded into a 20-bed program that operates out of a former hotel in Tenderloin, with a budget of $5 million annually.
The program’s nurses provide clients with a motel room, three meals a day, and enough alcohol “to meet their addiction needs, but keep someone at a safe level of intoxication.” What a lovely way to spend taxpayer money, right?
In addition to free alcohol, the program also allows marijuana use, because why not? There’s no policy against it, so these individuals can indulge in their vices as they please.
Critics, including the Salvation Army San Francisco and its CEO Adam Nathan, have called this program into question. Nathan criticized the program after visiting the hotel, claiming it felt odd and didn’t seem like it was addressing the root problem. But hey, who cares about recovery and sobriety when you can just keep people in a perpetual state of addiction, right?
San Francisco Mayor London Breed has even chimed in, stating that harm reduction isn’t actually reducing harm, but making things far worse. But who’s to argue with the experts who claim this program has saved $1.7 million in reduced hospital visits and police calls? Certainly not the people who are genuinely concerned about the well-being of these individuals and the city’s use of taxpayer funds.
San Francisco’s Managed Alcohol Program is a shining example of how a city can throw money at a problem without actually addressing the underlying issues. Cheers to that, I guess.
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
