Canada

Before reading the article I assumed it was involuntary care for mentally ill people living on the streets...but for addiction rehab? how the hell is that going to work?

FORCE someone to get clean? that never works. it's a waste of money. Now if these were for mentally ill individuals on the streets, sure I'm all for it. I personally believe it's more cruel and inhumane to allow people that are mentally checked out to wander the streets and cause harm to themselves and others than receive involuntary treatment. But for addiction? it'll never work. The only way to get clean is if you want to get clean. I'm a recovering alcoholic myself and the only way it stuck for me was when I actually WANTED to be sober and I have been for 10+ years. But it ONLY worked when I wanted it. trying previous times? didn't stick because I didn't care.

this isn't going to work at all.

BC's New Democratic party continues to move to the far right.

I honestly don't understand how they can still operate under the CCF/NDP mantle.

Tommy Douglas would be disgusted at what they've done.

So, we're back to violating people's basic human rights again? Cool.

I have to assume Canada has laws on the books dictating the criteria and legal mechanisms through which someone can be involuntarily hospitalized, correct? If so, this just sounds like increasing psych bed capacity, where people are framing it like some accomplishment that's going to "clean up the streets."

More psych bed capacity is a good thing (assuming they are well-run facilities). Changing the laws to force someone into treatment who's not an imminent risk of harm to themselves or others would not be good, but that's not what this reads like.