With illicit drug use, homelessness and untreated mental illness reaching a crisis in parts of Canada, the governments of at least three provinces want to treat more people against their will, even as some health experts warn involuntary care for drug use can be ineffective and harmful.
This month, British Columbia’s premier, whose party is in a tight race for reelection in the province, said his government would expand involuntary treatment for people dealing with mental illness combined with addiction and brain injuries due to overdose. Some would be held in a repurposed jail.
The Alberta government is preparing legislation that would allow a family member, police officer or medical professional to petition to force treatment when a person is deemed an imminent danger to themselves or others because of addiction or drug use.
And New Brunswick has said it wants to allow involuntary treatment of people with substance use disorders, although it, too, has yet to propose legislation. A spokesperson for the governing Progressive Conservative party, which is also running for reelection, called this “compassionate intervention.”
A few years ago I would’ve been pretty disgusted with this, but now with frequent contact with entrenched homeless I think it’s needed.
There are those few that just seem to be stuck in addiction and anti-social behavior and permanent incarceration or exile are about the only other options. You’d need some robust safeguards though so that it’s only used as that last resort after exhausting other options.
Or Canada could fix its social issues to slow down the flow of destitute people.
Or Canada could fix
Surely you mean “and”? I may not have been clear in my previous comment but my point is there is a very small minority that can’t be helped in the other ways. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t also do all the other things since it’s just a very small group that can’t be helped that way and that’d be silly.
The state will do anything but fix the root cause IMHO.
Hence why I don’t never shill remedial programs. The regime caused these problems and now using taxpayer money to be the “good” guy.
This scheme here specifically is fucking abominations. Literally recipe for abuse. Nobody will be helped but many people will absued by the system. This is regime 101.
This doesn’t help the people already stuck. On these drugs, homeless, and dealing with the mental health issues that come with that is a huge burden, even if we fixed the issuess that push people into these addictions, they may not be able to get out of these situations on their own. Things like getting housed or employed become increasingly difficult when homeless and addicted. Ideally these involuntary treatments include housing treated people and assisting them in getting their own housing and employment.
This doesn’t help the people already stuck.
Neither will arresting them! We know that forced treatment does not have good outcomes for addiction! This is not science based policy, this is sheer populism, and it is going to further harm vulnerable people.
The idea that coercive power of the state can fix or even help is beyond naive.
Boomer brainrot
Robert Tanguay, an addictions psychiatrist and clinical assistant professor at the University of Calgary, supports involuntary care under certain conditions but also stressed more voluntary treatment options are needed.
Tanguay was a member of Alberta’s Recovery Expert Advisory Panel that helped shape government policy on addiction and mental health care, and said opinions about the efficacy of involuntary care varied.
“The one thing that was all agreed upon is it has to be done compassionately and in the healthcare system, not in the penal system,” Tanguay said. “We can’t just incarcerate people using drugs.”
This makes sense to me.
There’s a risk that police will weaponize an ability to commit someone to involuntary rehab. There’s a risk that overdoses might go unreported because people want to avoid being committed to a facility. The question is if these risks will be outweighed by any benefits. I think it’s unfortunate that these programs aren’t being discussed by political parties in practical terms. There’s just a lot of handwaving about whether or not it will ‘work’, and no real discussion of the objectives and expected outcomes.
allow a family member, police officer or medical professional to petition to force treatment when a person is deemed an imminent danger to themselves or others because of addiction or drug use
As long as there are some seriously strict requirements that need to be met then it’s better than what we have at the moment.
There absolutely will not be.
The intent is to be able to go out, round up the homeless in vans, and toss them into a ‘treatment’ centre. Taking street drugs is inherently dangerous, and so if you’re using, you’re eligible. If it turns out that you’re clean but have untreated mental health issues, then you’ll get held against your will for the safety of those around you.
I mean, they might as well start tracking these people by tattooing them - maybe with a bar code on their wrist.
I’m not sure how these are different from already existing psych holds?
The cause of addiction is not drugs. Programs like guaranteed minimum income would have far more impact on the actual causes of addiction. But let’s just imprison people until they stop being sick, that’ll work.
The cause of addiction is not drugs.
This is a very strange take.
It was a strange take in the 1980s when the disease model was the best we had. Today it is well accepted that most drugs alone don’t typically produce addiction. Just not by conservative voters, who still act like addiction is a moral failing, because people choose to do drugs “the first time,” and then become “chemically addicted”.
Please see, for example: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/bulletin/bulletin_1999-01-01_1_page005.html
I understand the view that in rehabilitation from addiction, drugs are not the only factor to consider. But they are absolutely a factor that needs to be considered. Ask anyone who has tried to quit smoking, drinking, or using any drug.
If someone overdoses and almost dies, or harms someone else, I think the state has a responsibility to get that person help that they may not have the ability, knowledge, or desire to seek, as opposed to turning them back out onto the street and waiting for it to happen again. The situation right now where I live is that businesses and homes are stocked with naloxone kits, and citizens are administering lifesaving healthcare to people on death’s door, on the sidewalk. Everyone I know who lives downtown has seen a dead body on the street in the past year. That’s not good, and practical solutions are needed immediately. I’m not convinced that a Swiss bulletin from 1999 which tents its argument on examples from the Vietnam War and the American Civil War really gets to the heart of the current issue and set of circumstances.
I’m not convinced that a Swiss bulletin from 1999 which tents its argument on examples from the Vietnam War and the American Civil War really gets to the heart of the current issue and set of circumstances.
This was course material to a post grad university course on the subject of addiction and recovery taught THIS MONTH. It discusses the entire history of opiods.
I think we should both be able to agree that it is more informed than you are.
Ok. There are hundreds of overdoses EVERY DAY in shelters in my town. Have fun with that.
You can’t just lock people in a room until they are out of physical withdrawal and call them cured. They are still addicts. The causes of the addiction still exist. They will continue to seek drugs to help cope with life. This makes things worse.
But it takes resources away from people who want to get better. In my town, there are two to FIVE YEAR waiting lists for resources. But go ahead, institutionalize every person who a shelter worker has to shoot with Naloxone. You can fuck them and people trying to get better at the same time. Hurting all the right people, perhaps.
You are arguing from a place of ignorance, and that’s exactly what these politicians are counting on. You’re arguing from the needs of people who don’t want to see overdoses in the street, not from the needs of people with addiction. That’s the point of this entire program; addressing the relatively unimportant desires of non-addicts who vote.
The problem with the current program is that we did a “half Portugal” where we stopped with enforcement because it was cheaper, and also didn’t put in funding for support and treatment because because they (the goverment) thought is was cheaper.
The problem with this, knowing that our government is cheap. They’ll talk about enforcement, but will be super cheap about it. I’d actually be more worried about this endeavour if I thought they were going to fund it adequately.
The intention of the politicians expounding this isn’t even to improve outcomes, it’s to improve election performance, and they don’t care who has to be thrown under the bus to accomplish it. They don’t care whether or not it improves outcomes as long as it engages voters.
What evidence do you have for this?
Nobody gets clean while sleeping rough.
https://homelesshub.ca/collection/programs-that-work/housing-first/
https://endhomelessness.org/resource/data-visualization-the-evidence-on-housing-first/
And here is a podcast by and about drug users where people speak about their experiences with the system in BC and elsewhere as is has been, is, and is becoming: https://www.crackdownpod.com/ Includes interviews with researchers and doctors.
I have found it extremely worthwhile and necessary listening, but it is heartwrenching.
Nothing about them without them.
This is such a ridiculous proposition. The people who want treatment can’t get it. Are we going to take the overworked doctors away from patients in order to forcibly treat drug addicts?
