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A. PUBLIC POLICY: A governmental course of action designed to influence and determine community and individual decisions relating to the use of alcohol and other drugs, public policy is often government's response to concerns and issues of importance raised by members of the community.
1. Challenge: Governmental entities, elected officials, department heads, and the public at large have inconsistent policies and are ambivalent regarding the extent of alcohol and other drug problems, how they affect different segments of the community, and at what point to intervene.- Not-for-profit agencies, churches, and players in the health and human services arena frequently send mixed messages to the public by serving alcohol at their fundraisers and ' social events. Advocates for specific programmatic responses to these problems recognize that high level leadership is essential to the forging of a comprehensive, systems-wide community partnership.
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Goals/Recommendations: |
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a. |
Identify and secure support from potential elected leaders and department heads in county and city government for an environmentally focused public policy campaign aimed at the development and implementation of specific, locally identified public policy initiatives and strategies to reduce alcohol and other drug problems. (H, SS, CJ; Short-Term)
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Conduct comprehensive, systems-wide review of civic, school, church, and other not-for-profit policies regarding the availability and service of alcohol (including sponsorship of events by the alcohol industry) in public places and at public events and fundraisers, including art and cultural festivals in public parks, civic buildings, and in the streets. (H, SS, E; Short-Term)
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2. Challenge: Advertising portrays reality inappropriately, portrays things that do not exist, and encourages people to desire things that aren't there. Products, rather than relationships with people and the community, have become the objects of pursuit. Advertising, media, and an inadvertent lack of coherent public policy have collaborated to create an environment wherein alcohol and drug saturation has outstripped efforts to limit alcohol and drug availability and, therefore, attendant problems. Diverse multicultural groups are often the targets of intensified industry marketing efforts.
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Goals/Recommendations: |
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a. |
Develop alcohol- and drug-free zones around schools, day care centers, parks, and other selected areas identified by local groups. (H, SS, E, CJ; Short-Term and Ongoing)
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b. |
Seek legislation banning all media and billboard advertising of alcohol and drug products. (H, SS; Short-Term) (Priority)
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c. |
Increase use of the media for providing information to elected officials and to the public at large on problems related to the use of alcohol and other drugs, and responses to those problems. Include in these efforts information comparing the alcohol industry's budget for advertising with the govermnent's budget to address the results of alcohol problems in society. ( H, SS, State; Long-Term)
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Expand efforts to offer an alcohol- and drug-free workplace in the public and private sectors. (H, SS, State; Long-Term) (Priority)
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e. |
Seek legislation limiting the hours of sale and limiting the number of on- and off-sale alcohol licenses per population increment, with specific focus on lowering the ratio in already saturated neighborhoods. (H, SS; Short-Term) (Priority)
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Seek legislation increasing the tax on alcoholic beverages, and use the dollars to address the results of alcohol problems in the community. (H, SS; Short-Term) (Priority)
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Support efforts of law enforcement and criminal justice to arrest and convict not only the dealers of illicit drugs, but also the buyers. (CJ; Short-Term and Ongoing)
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Seek legislation increasing the penalties to vendors who sell alcohol to minors. (H, SS, E, CJ; Short-Term) (Priority)
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Seek legislation prohibiting the display (near doorways, cash registers) of alcoholic beverages and drug paraphernalia (cigarette papers) in convenience stores. (H, SS, E, CJ; Short-Term) (Priority)
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j. |
Develop specific contracts with African-American, Chinese, Filipino, and Latino not-for-profit organizations, for the hiring and deploying of community organizers with expertise in alcohol, drug, and related problems, to begin the process of mobilizing communities experiencing the high tangible consequences of alcohol and other drug problems to an extraordinary degree. (H, SS; Short-Term) (Priority)
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k. |
Fund a San Mateo County Council on Alcohol Policy to provide expertise and technical assistance to governmental entities, businesses, and community groups regarding the public policy approaches and environmental prevention initiatives that may be utilized to address alcohol problems in the community.(H, SS; Short-Term) (Priority)
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3. Challenge: Categorical program responses to alcohol, drug, and other problems often have precluded proper review of the social underpinnings of these problems. Lack of education, jobs, and opportunity, as well as the effects of racism and classism, have created conditions where in the"American Dream" is not available to many. Disintegration of family, neighborhoods, and community, as well as many of their institutions, has been exacerbated by the mobility of modem urban living. Groups of people have migrated into contemporary America without the language, skills, grounding, and connections necessary to assist them in makin2 an adequate living or future. The dominant culture does not encourage an environment that validates the experience, values, and cultural issues held in esteem by many of these groups. The "War on Drugs" is seen by many as being a war on people and on civil liberties. Its language is often sensational but inaccurate. Elected officials, department heads, program managers, and line staff most often represent a white, Euro-American middle class educational and value system, and therefore they implement programs, services, and activities reflective of that value system. To large numbers of high-need individuals such a system is perceived as being culturally and linguistically irrelevant.
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Goals/Recommendations: |
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a. |
Validate that there are communities that deserve to have their differences recognized and to have culturally and linguistically relevant programs, services, and activities by providing outreach, recruitment, and inclusion of multicultural groups in the planning, implementation, development, management, and evaluation of programs, sera, ices, and activities available for their use. (H, SS, E, CJ; Short-Term and Ongoing)
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Increase efforts to develop partnership with the business community to support innovative training, and employment programs for multicultural groups, including provisions for sustenance and support for individuals enrolled in training programs. (H, SS; Long-Term)
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c. |
Seek federal legislation providing a new framework for assessing illicit drug problems, including, a realistic goal of reducing or postponing the onset of the problem, rather than the unrealistic one of totally eliminating it. Harm reduction strategies, which view different drugs differently, according to the level of harm and level of cost attached, are a reality-based approach. (H, SS, State; Short-Term) (Priority)
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4. Challege: Economy-of-scale issues emerge in consideration of programs for some multicultural groups in the urban Bay Area. County Alcohol and Drug Programs do not have the resources to open all of the programs necessary to address the myriad of unique problems.
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Goals/Recommendations: |
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a. |
Review and develop methods and models for collaboration, integration, coordination, and cost-sharing on a regional basis. (H, SS, E, CJ; Short-Term)
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Encourage participation with other counties with similar un-met needs. (H, SS, E, CJ; Short-Term and Ongoing)
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5. Challenge: The Not-In-My-Back-Yard (NIMBY) issue has made it increasingly difficult to offer alcohol and drug program services, as well as other kinds of services, in communities where problems occur. Local planning commissions and codes, state licensing regulations, and fire marshal requirements further complicate the ability of communities to address alcohol and other drug problems at the local level. There is widespread lack of understanding that neighborhoods are better off when people are in programs and not using alcohol and other drums than when people are on the streets and still using alcohol and other drugs.
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Goals/Recommendations: |
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a. |
Seek state and local legislation easing the use permit process at the local level and state licensing regulations. (H, SS, State; Short-Term) (Priority)
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b. |
Work with the state fire marshal to achieve uniform statewide fire regulations appropriate to alcohol and drug programs. (H, SS; Short-Term) (Priority)
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c. |
Conduct a public awareness campaign to encourage public support of community based services for health problems. (H, SS; Short-Term and Ongoing)
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