Local Ordinance will help City Recover $17.7 Million in Alcohol-Related Health Care Costs

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --

    What:      News Conference and Rally
    When:      August 4, 2010   10:00 a.m.
                California State Capitol Building, East Side (Facing 12th and
    Where:      Capitol Ave.)
    Who:       Partial list of invited participants...
               -- John Avalos, Supervisor, City and County of San Francisco
               -- Sophie Maxwell, Supervisor, City and County of San Francisco
               -- Ross Mirkarimi, Supervisor, City and County of San Francisco
                --Reverend Norman Fong, Program Director, Chinatown Community
                Development Center (CCDC)
                --Tom O'Connor, President, San Francisco Firefighters Local
                798
                --Mitch Katz, M.D., Director of San Francisco Department of
                Public Health
               -- Larry Bevan, President, SEIU 1021
                --Michael Rokeach, M.D., President, San Francisco Medical
                Society
               -- Dr. Mimi Silbert, President & CEO, Delancey Street
                --Richard Jimenez, M.A., Vice President, Development, Walden
                House
               -- Jim Illig, President, San Francisco Health Commission
                --Hene Kelly, Legislative Director, California Alliance for
                Retired Americans (CARA)
               -- Michele Simon, Research & Policy Director, Marin Institute
               -- Deborah Camarillo, Executive Director, Latino Commission
               -- Laura Thomas, Deputy State Director, Drug Policy Alliance
               -- Jimmy Loyce, Executive Director, Black Coalition on Aids
                --Arthur Bosse, Executive Director, National Council on
                Alcoholism and Other Drug Addictions (NCADA)
               -- Matt Rosen, Youth Leadership Institute (YLI)

                To advocate for the passage of California's first Charge for
                Harm local ordinance to assess alcohol wholesalers,
                distributors and others for a portion of San Francisco's
                alcohol-related harm. Introduced by Supervisor John Avalos
                and cosponsored by Supervisors Sophie Maxwell and Russ
                Mirkarimi, the measure is supported by a San Francisco
                Controller's "nexus" study that detailed over $17 million in
                costs to city funded services like treatment, prevention,
                medical transport and hospitalization for alcohol related
                illness. The fee ordinance will be discussed in a SF Board of
                Supervisors Finance Committee hearing at 11 a.m. in the
    Why:        Board's main chambers.

                To help the public understand the astronomical annual cost of
                alcohol-related harm in San Francisco, and the effects on a
                chronically under-funded health care system.

                To elevate visibility of the Charge for Harm movement - a
                rapidly growing, diverse, statewide constituency of concerned
                individuals, treatment and prevention service providers,
                cities, counties, public health officials, enforcement, labor,
                community, youth and faith-based groups determined to pass
                fair and meaningful alcohol-harm mitigation fees in
                California.

                                      ChargeForHarm.org

      Contact: Michael Scippa 415/548-0492
               Jorge Castillo 213/840-3336

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SOURCE Charge for Harm Alliance