Down Where the Drunkards Roll

In SF, they are just starting to notice something that should be obvious to anyone who has spent any time around the City's homeless - they are drunk and they benefit from the expenditure of millions in emergency health services*. Maybe we should convene a death panel to sort this all out: Chronic Drunk's Treaments Cost SF Big Bucks

"Chronic inebriants" are a grim and disturbing fact of life in San Francisco. They also cost the city millions.

The frustration is that the public service network - police, fire and medical professionals - doesn't seem to make a dent when it comes to people like Walters. There are suggestions, like a pilot program for high-impact users at the Department of Public Health, or the Community Justice Center to target frequent users, but nothing seems to get traction.

A five-year study found that 225 high ambulance users cost the city an average of $13 million annually, said Maria X. Martinez, a deputy director at the Department of Public Health.

Here's how a typical "chronic inebrient" budgets himself, so he can pursue his vocation:

(Famed drunk Kenny) Walters, who was decked out in a red, long-sleeve Spider Man shirt, isn't homeless or broke. The 41-year-old happily shared his story with me. He sat up, pushed his blond bangs off his face, and blinked his striking blue eyes until
his surroundings came into focus.

"I do get caught for drinking out here every day," he said affably. "I wish I had another beer right now."

He said he gets $953 a month in Supplemental Security Income for disabled and aged citizens and pays $650 a month for a hotel room in the Tenderloin under the city's Care Not Cash program.

With free meals available from local charities, that leaves $300 a month for booze. Walters says he doesn't do hard drugs, just pot. He just drinks, usually "40 ouncers," big, cheap bottles of beer.

I have news for all you compassionate folks out there; this is not George Bush's fault. It is not because of cowboy capitalism, or deregulation, or "draconian" cuts in welfare services, or the rich getting richer. It is also not Ronald Reagan's fault, despite many people's evident belief - expressed whenever they see some particularly deranged drunk - that "we never had these problems until Ronald Reagan emptied out the asylums." Sorry, folks, that was 40 years ago. Blaming Reagan won't cut it, especially since SF and CA have been liberal majority for decades. You got any brilliant ideas? I mean, besides giving them money, no questions asked, and letting them slowly die on the streets?

The fact is that a bottomless committment to government sponsored compassion results in just this sort of abuse. "Free" healthcare means someone else will pick up the tab. There is no incentive to care for oneself beyond bare self-preservation. Worse, the "no questions asked" culture that permeates the social services world ensures that the nation's worst - the druggies, the drunks, the crazy, the lazy, the criminal, and the deranged - will all come here searching for "free" services paid for by us.

*plus, didn't Malcolm Gladwell write about this in :"The Tipping Point?" Way to stay in the vanguard, SF!