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.”
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.
You’re making personal assumptions about me, and the internal mental states of others that I think are unfair.
I don’t want to see overdoses in the street, nobody should. Not because I want it to happen in private, but because I don’t want it to happen. For the record, and not that you asked, but, I’ve also never said that I’m an advocate for mandatory rehab, or that it’s some kind of magical cure-all. I’m not here carrying water for these initiatives. All I’m saying is that there’s a serious problem, and a need for solutions and sincere discussion. I don’t think anything is gained for any position by browbeating others and fabulating their inner thoughts.
Interesting. Can you link the course? I’d be curious to see the syllabus and learn more.