A proposed California law would let doctors with substance abuse issues avoid public discipline by entering a confidential diversion program — raising concerns about patient safety, failed oversight, and the potential for impaired physicians to continue practicing in secret.

As East Bay Times reports, Assembly Bill 408 (AB 408) would allow physicians to undergo treatment overseen by the Medical Board of California without triggering public disciplinary proceedings or notifying the Board’s enforcement division. That means a doctor could fail drug tests, relapse, or even be impaired on the job while still treating patients — without the public ever knowing.

Opponents argue the bill prioritizes physician rehabilitation over public protection and revives a failed system. The Medical Board’s previous confidential diversion program was dismantled in 2008 after five critical state audits and multiple cases of patient harm. According to Consumer Watchdog, “The idea that a confidential program will  encourage voluntary participation is a myth. Over its three-decade  history, the Medical Board’s Diversion Program was never successful in  enticing self-referrals into voluntary treatment.”

“I lost everything when I was harmed,” said Tina Minasian, a patient advocate injured by a substance-abusing surgeon in the old program, as reported by PR Newswire. “We gained too many protections in the past fifteen years to give them up.”

Consumer Watchdog, the Consumer Protection Policy Center at the USD School of Law, and others say AB 408 sidesteps current oversight laws and removes consequences for doctors who relapse or violate the program. As CPPC put it, “Time and resources dedicated to a physician rehabilitation program would be designed to benefit physicians first, with the protection of the public only being an auxiliary side-effect.”

Supporters, including Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park), argue the bill encourages doctors to seek help before their issues endanger patients. “Physicians struggling with substance use disorders can feel pressure to hide their condition and often never get the help they need,” Berman said.

But critics warn that AB 408 would allow impaired doctors to quietly return to practice. “That means patients will be harmed by doctors who relapse, just as they were in the last program,” said Carmen Balber of Consumer Watchdog.

One example often cited is a San Francisco doctor suspected of stealing drugs was found passed out in an operating room before assisting with a toddler’s surgery. Under AB 408, such cases could be diverted into confidential treatment with no investigation or consequences.

The bill echoes the recent expansion of a military diversion program law that’s now being used to shield some law enforcement officers from prosecution for violent crimes, as covered by SFist. AB 408 has already passed the Assembly and is now under Senate consideration.

Image: Riza Azhari/Getty Images

Related: Ex-SJPD Officer Who Allegedly Punched Woman in 2021 DUI Road Rage Incident Skirts Charges

Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who over the last year has been called out on social media a couple of times for sounding drunk during Zoom meetings of the SF Board of Supervisors, announced Thursday that he is entering a treatment program for alcohol abuse.

Peskin, who has served on the Board of Supervisors for more combined years than anyone in decades — or possibly ever — posted a brief note to Twitter apologizing for the "tenor" of his public relationships, and saying, "I have decided to enter alcohol treatment under the guidance of professionals." He also thanked his family, staff, and colleagues for their understanding of "the difficult issues that I'm finally confronting."

It's unclear if there was a particular inciting public or private incident for Peskin's decision. But the Chronicle's Heather Knight, who has been at odds with Peskin and several of his colleagues in the pages of the newspaper in recent months, suggests that Peskin's announcement comes after "inquires from The Chronicle over the past two days regarding complaints from City Hall staff and elected officials about his behavior."

During Tuesday's meeting of the Board of Supervisors, Peskin was notably aggressive with Rec & Park Department General Manager Phil Ginsburg over questions about his relationship with the nonprofit Parks Alliance. As 48 Hills described in a Wednesday piece, Peskin interjected during a debate about "a normally routine item about spending from a bond act," to confront Ginsburg over a somewhat threatening letter the Parks Alliance wrote to Supervisor Connie Chan back in March. This all went back to the arguments over the Ferris Wheel again, which Chan was also bringing up during Tuesday's meeting, but Peskin's tone sounded especially ornery.

He asserted that Ginsburg was "deeply involved and inextricably linked to this nonprofit" and the behavior of the organization in sending that letter (which threatened to pull funding for a park renovation in Chan's district) was "conduct unbecoming. … it is outrageous" and he added "the answer is to take responsibility."

On Wednesday, per the Chronicle, Mayor London Breed reportedly told city department heads "that inappropriate behavior from supervisors would not be tolerated and that she would work with the City Attorney’s office and Department of Human Resources about how they could hold supervisors accountable." Knight reports that she had on-the-record comments from Peskin on Wednesday in which he admitted to excessively drinking "a time or two but not too often," and saying, "Elected officials have been known to have a drink. I believe Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, major world leaders, have had a drink on the job."

Peskin sounded pretty obviously intoxicated during a live-streamed meeting of the board in March 2020, in the early days of the pandemic — something that spawned chatter on Reddit and a parody Twitter account called @drunkaaronpeskin.

During the meeting, Peskin interjected during regular business to say, like a cliche drunk person does, "I just want to tell all of my colleagues... and all of my staff that I love you guys, so much, and hang in."

The Twitter account also called out this August 2020 interview that Peskin appears to have done from home, speaking to the San Francisco Young Democrats in support of his reelection campaign to the board, and he sounds pretty drunk and slurry there too. No judgement! It was a rough year.

One of Peskin's colleagues during his first terms on the board, David Campos, responded on Twitter saying, "It’s been years for me but I know from my own personal experience that it’s never easy to admit you have a problem and I’m proud that my friend @AaronPeskin did just that.  Wishing him and his family well."

Peskin served on the Board of Supervisors from 2001 to 2009, in two consecutive terms. He then took a few years off before running for election again in 2015, as permitted by the City Charter, and he's served ever since. He was elected to finish the term of David Chiu beginning in December 2015, was reelected in 2016, and was elected to his final term last November, which he will finish in 2024. That's 13 years and counting representing District 3.

Peskin is a longtime champion of progressive legislation, and the elder statesmen of SF progressives.

Related: SF Might Start Taxing Landlords Who Keep Apartments Vacant

Each Tuesday we will feature new music that should (or whatever) be on your radar.

Standouts: (There are no major standouts this week)

2. Enchanted - Soundtrack: We are thinking that the only song on this album that's worth listening to is Jon McLaughlin's "So Close." We've seen him twice in concert and each time he's been nothing but stellar. We think we'll just download that one song.

3. U2 - Joshua Tree (Remastered): Nothing much that we can add to this, except if you don't own this masterfully crafted 80's album, then go buy the remastered version. For old and new fans alike, U2 re-releases one of our favorite albums. Ever.

4. Six Organs of Admittance - Shelter from the Ash: iTunes classifies Six Organs of Admittance as "freak folk." You laugh, but it's true. We have to agree with them on that. It seems that you have to be in the right mood to venture into the mind of Ben Chasney. Check out their free show at Amoeba in Berkeley on Thursday, December 6th. (Listen to: "Jade Like Wine.")

For more info on other CD releases, take the jump...

The dude who plunked down $752,467 to get the home-run ball that is #756 has decided to put it up to an online vote as to what to do with it. If you go to his site, www.vote756.com, you can vote for these three options:

-Send the ball to the Hall of Fame
-Send the ball to the Hall of Fame but not before branding it with a big, fat asterisk
-Blast it into outer space

Personally, we like the idea of blasting it into outer space in hopes that someday, some aliens will come upon it and think it's a message and so send a spaceship in response, one that mistakenly could destroy the planet Earth and so some futuristic starship captain will have to save the day, but not before nailing one of the aliens on the ship of course.

We also think there are some other possible options not considered, such as:

-Being adopted by Angelina Jolie
-New White House press spokesman
-Contestant on VH-1's "The Pick Up Artist" (let's see the pick-up experts try and get the ball laid)
-Next mysterious object on "Lost"
-Go into rehab with Lindsey Lohan

Mark and Alex grew up as extremely close brothers in Missoula, Montana. As they entered adolescence, both realized they were gay, and in struggling to come to terms with that, both entered into abusive relationships (with the same man) and fell into drug use and depression. After returning from rehab, Alex announced to his twin and his family that he no longer identified as male, and was adopting the name Clair. The movie is about their family's in accepting, and then embracing, this new reality as the twins enter adulthood.

was filmed over a three and a half year span, and as the twins grow up and become more comfortable in their own shared, yet separate, identities, it was truly moving to see their mother move herself from anger and denial to a whole-hearted happiness that both Clair and Mark had grown up so well. The twins are both extremely well-spoken and thoughtful, and speak eloquently about embracing ambiguity in themselves and their twin: Clair put it well when she says, "I wasn't born a man or a woman, I was born to make this change from one to another."

As someone in the question and answer session said, this is a movie where everyone -- not just Clair -- goes through a profound transformation: whether it's Clair growing more comfortable in her gendered identity, Mark learning to expand his boundaries through love, or their mother realizing that her child is still her child. And as someone else pointed out at the Father's Day screening, the Fairleys' father's unconditional support of Clair was a lifeline as well.

Red Without Blue screens again on Wednesday the 20th at the Castro at 2:30, and then will be showing on the Sundance Channel on June 25th at 9 p.m.

Picture of identical twins Mark and Clair Farley by Brooke Sebold.

How can mainstream comedy be dead when is all about inventive delivery? (Get it? "Delivery?")

Stronger than Judd Apatow’s last bluntly-titled summer comedy (The 40-Year-Old Virgin), Knocked Up stands up to both scrutiny and high expectations. The film is so funny it’s sure to have another life on DVD where you won’t be missing any of the punch lines because of the audience laughter. (We missed like 25% of the jokes due to crowd appreciation.)

How'd the locals like it? Mick LaSalle gave it a clapping man, and the Examiner's Sally Kline called it "the best mainstream movie of the summer so far." However, local boy Fernando Croce was more skeptical, saying "Wasn't "having a baby" elected the ultimate going-to-suck warning in that Jump the Shark website?"

But we're most interested in what Peter Cavanese says at Groucho Reviews -- that Apatow is taking a “part in the rehab of the mainstream comedy." It’s a necessary issue that mainstream comedy has gone the way of sassy or stupid. On one hand there are the eternal head injuries of the broad boned Employee of the Month and on the other hand there are the sardonic inference of less widely-seen genre bending John Cusack comedies like the Ice Harvest. Let’s be fair: both brands have done as much to polarize audiences as they have to sour them.

So, is that it? Is the issue that we expect belly laughs from smart jokes or enlightenment from head injury? (Aren’t those things incompatible?) Or maybe this compromise is part of the “rehab” Cavanese talks about -- maybe Seth Rogen (smart but immature Ben) is somehow representative of the public.

Maybe we're all hoping to get enlightenment through irresponsible, drunken sex. If it was that easy for him...

SFist Sara, contributing.

There's a profile of Phil Ginsburg, the new mayoral chief of staff, in today's Chron. Basically, it's a hard job, Ginsburg took a $75K paycut when he took it, and he was nonplussed when, about one week in, he got stuck dealing with the Ruby Rippey-Tourk/rehab circus. Also, Ginsburg is really into org charts.

Interestingly, though, pretty much everyone admits (or at least doesn't deny) that Gavin is difficult to work with, and praise Ginsburg for "not drinking the Kool-Aid" for the administration. Supervisor Bevan Dufty was brave enough to go on the record and say that when he heard Ginsburg had accepted the position, he called Ginsburg and said, "You didn't ask me, but I would have told you not to take the job." Guess Dufty and Newsom are still fighting, then?

Newsom, for his part, says he's glad he has a chief of staff that has little political experience, saying, "I don't want a political strategist. I want a manager. I'll ... sort of come up with the audacious ideas." We're looking forward to seeing the audacious ideas that Newsom sort of comes up with next!

You gossip mavens probably already know that Ms. Spears performed lip-synced a brief but dance-intensive 15 minute set in San Diego and LA earlier this week, under the name "the M+Ms." Well, guess who's listed on the marquee at the Red Devil Lounge for Monday night?

Tickets for the M+Ms go on sale tomorrow at 6 p.m. If it actually is Brit, here's the song list she's gone through (in identical order) at her two previous shows: Baby One More Time, I'm a Slave 4 U, Breathe on Me (complete with strip dance), Do Somethin', and Toxic. Dang, how does her wig stay on through all that?

Tonight, learn about graffiti street artists as SF360 Film+Club returns to Mezzanine to celebrate the URB Next 100 Issue with a screening of Doug Pray’s film, Infamy. The film is an
intense journey into the dangerous lives and obsessed minds of six of America’s most prolific graffiti artists. Doug Pray (“Hype!” and “Scratch”) teamed up with writer, publisher, and graffiti guru Roger Gastman, to make a movie that takes you deep into the world of street legends Saber, Toomer, Jase, Claw, Earsnot, and Enem. After the film, the intriguingly named Chicago DJ Flosstradamus will perform, with Vin Sol opening. Doors at 7 pm, film starts at 7:30 pm, music starts at 10 pm. Damrak Gin will providing free gin drinks for the first hour. How sweet is that?. Tickets to the film are $8, but you can email info@sf360.org for $5 tickets. If you show up for the concert only, tickets will be $10. SF360 Film+Club is presented by the San Francisco Film Society, Mezzanine and Rehab. This event is sponsored by SFWeekly, 7x7 and Damrak. SF360 Film+Club is a monthly series, and past events have featured Next: A Primer on Urban Painting, Wholphin (we have it at home & it's seriously funny) and Colma: The Musical.

As for Infamy, the film is supposed to be funny and brutally honest. The artists in the film reveal why they are so willing to risk everything to spray paint their cities with "tags," “throwups,” and full-color murals. Meet Joe "The Graffiti Guerilla" Connolly, a notorious “buffer” who paints out graffiti on his neighborhood’s walls with a vengeance matched only by those who vandalized them. From the streets of the South Bronx to the solitude of a San Francisco tunnel, from high atop a Hollywood billboard to North Philadelphia for a lesson in "Philly-style tags," from the Mexican border to a Cleveland train yard, Infamy probably won't analyze or glorify graffiti, but instead bring it to life.

Mezzanine is at 444 Jessie Street @ Mint, SF. Phone: 415-625-8880

Please, for your sake, send Questions you want Answered to sfistanswers@gmail.com, and we will do our best to provide.

Maybe walkies after this?:

Q:

A: When we put your Question to the San Francisco Department of Traffic and Parking's Enforcement Division operator at 415 553-1631. They informed us that you're never supposed to park in the median on Valencia! Of course, plenty do. So, when do the authorities tow?

According to our intrepid operator, DPT is not dispatched to that area unless a neighbor calls and complains.

And what of SFPD? What's their role in this? "PD can do 'whatever' if they are in the area," said our operator briskly, "If they want to call it in to the tow trucks, they do." The police "usually try to 'locate' first, and then order the tow truck". How long does it take for a tow truck to respond? Fifteen to twenty minutes. "A busy Friday or Saturday night could take quite a while though."

Q: Amy Winehouse? Is she playing in SF? ~~~ Caroline

A: Yes, she'll be doing a pre-Coachella gig south of Market at Popscene.

The show is sold out, but you could still get in through craigslist or persistence at the door of the show. Here's the info:

Amy Winehouse / The Klaxons
April 26, 2007
Doors open at 9:00 PM
popscene
330 Ritch, San Francisco
Age 18 and up

Amy Winehouse saaangin' picture via www.anncookphotos.co.uk.

BART?

Yep, BART won as the Best MUNI line with almost 1/3rd of the vote. In terms of actual MUNI lines, the winner is the F Line, with 17%. In third came the 1 California. Guess there's not that much hate out there for the 1.

It appears too that over the past few days, BART solidified their lead, making us wonder just what happened out there over the past few days to make people want to vote more for BART than an actual MUNI line.

Anyways, that's it for MUNI polls, unless we decide to do some sort of NCAA Tournament "Worst MUNI Line" thing but we think we've probably milked this whole thing enough. In fact, we've probably milked this whole poll thing as the only other polls we can think of running right now are "Best BART Line" or a "What Color Tie Should Gavin Wear?" poll Hmmm...or maybe a "Best Rehab Buddy for Gavin Poll" featuring Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan, Mel Gibson, and Kate Moss.

The big money quote? Gavin channeling Popeye to say "I am who I am, imperfect and a work in progress." He also denied cocaine use, said he was going to Delancey Street almost every night, and wasn't sure if he was an alcoholic. In fact, he admitted that his work with Delancey Street was more to help him figure out why he was drinking as much as he was and not so much the 12 Step Program. Asked about his problems, Gavin admitted that his personal life had gotten in the way of his doing his job as Mayor and that he finds being Mayor these days as "therapeutic." He then went on to say, in the unedited interview, how much better he's feeling these days and then went on to talk about having nothing left to lose and all that and we could almost hear the inspirational power-ballad in the background.

Eh, sorry. Was that too snarky? He actually comes off as pretty honest in the interview and does take complete and full responsibility in what he did. He even mentioned that the whole rehab thing is a bit of a cliche and that he doesn't want to make it come off like he's blaming the booze. And hell, considering the recent doings of Ms. Spears, what Gavin did is kind of boring-- a whole new standard in public meltdowns has been set.

Gavin got a little help from Ms Pelosi as she was in town to talk about Global Warming. Apparently, she spent the first few minutes praising the Mayor's leadership skills, but as Fog City Journal notes, they never hugged or did anything that could get turned into a negative ad, you know, showing off all those San Francisco Values and all that. Not that Rudy Guilliani is considered a front runner for the nomination and all that. Eh, who knows.

Picture of Gavin and Nancy by SFist Jim

Hey, does anyone know what the mayor of San Francisco's up to?

--M&R report that Gavin has been attending rehab sessions every day this last week -- some as individual sessions with the head of Delancey Street, and some as group sessions, and his community service will take the form of activities he was already doing as mayor. He's dealing with "interpersonal issues, friendship issues, and issues that have been locked up for some time and have had him sabotaging himself." However, political science experts think the whole apology-rehab thing is a bad move: "It's a joke."

--Meanwhile, Gavin opened his reelection campaign office today, to a packed house and upbeat mood. No replacement for Alex Tourk has been named, and Newsom's father said that Gavin's sister has been trying to talk to him about his drinking for some time.

--As requested, here's the clip of Stephen Colbert mocking Gavin Newsom for destroying straight marriages from last Wednesday. You have to watch the ad first, though, sorry.

--While the South Bay donors are by and large okay with Gavin, one VC who knows Alex Tourk has issued a statement that he will not be donating any more money to the Newsom campaign.

--Rumor has it that the Tourks are moving out of the Bay Area.

--There's a webpage just of jokes that Jay Leno's made about Gavin Newsom.

--And William Safire's On Language column today is called "Culpa for Mayor," but it's just about grammatical errors he's made involving the subjunctive tense, and not about mayors taking responsibility for things. Would that it ....!