As well-intentioned as expanding involuntary treatment may be, the proposals put forward by B.C. Premier David Eby and his Alberta counterpart, Premier Danielle Smith, raise many questions that need to be answered before we start a wave of coercive care and pre-electoral roundups of people living with addiction.Neither province has actually tabled new legislation, so the proposals remain vague at best, free of the devilish details that ultimately matter.
We already have forensic psychiatric facilities to house those who were once called the “criminally insane.” In B.C. alone, more than 20,000 people a year are involuntarily hospitalized, usually because of a psychotic episode that poses a danger to themselves or others. Earlier in its term, the B.C. government had proposed mandatory treatment for everyone who overdosed, but dropped that plan after an outcry from activists. With about 120 overdoses officially recorded every day , there is no way that treatment could be provided.