Why Forced Addiction Treatment Fails

April 30, 2022  NY TIMES OPINION
By Maia Szalavitz-Ms. Szalavitz is a contributing Opinion writer. She covers addiction and public policy.
​
Jason Norelli, a San Francisco native, spent several years homeless in and around the city’s Tenderloin district, addicted to methamphetamine. In 2001, he was legally mandated to attend rehab and has been in recovery ever since. Today he helps others like him get care.
Mr. Norelli’s experience makes him seem like a poster child for legally mandated addiction treatment. At least 37 states now have laws on the books that allow parents, police or concerned others to petition courts to compel rehab through civil commitment if a judge deems someone a threat to themselves or others.

Twenty-five such laws were passed or expanded between 2015 and 2018 alone, according to a recent investigation by The Intercept, and this growth continues. This month, Massachusetts proposed an increase in funding to its civil commitment program for addiction, bringing it to about $23 million. In March, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California proposed a new system of “CARE Courts,” to expand civil commitment for homeless people with schizophrenia and often addiction.

But voluntary rehab has a better track record and is less likely to harm the people it is intended to help. Criminalization and coercion have helped create a patchwork of addiction programs that is harsh, low quality, underfunded, understaffed and too often fraudulent. Since legally mandated care is often the only way to get immediate and free treatment, a damaging cycle continues.

• Give this article

ADVERTISEMENT

Continue reading the main story
OPINIONGUEST ESSAY
Why Forced Addiction Treatment Fails
April 30, 2022
Credit...Julianna Brion

• Give this article

By Maia Szalavitz
Ms. Szalavitz is a contributing Opinion writer. She covers addiction and public policy.
Jason Norelli, a San Francisco native, spent several years homeless in and around the city’s Tenderloin district, addicted to methamphetamine. In 2001, he was legally mandated to attend rehab and has been in recovery ever since. Today he helps others like him get care.
Mr. Norelli’s experience makes him seem like a poster child for legally mandated addiction treatment. At least 37 states now have laws on the books that allow parents, police or concerned others to petition courts to compel rehab through civil commitment if a judge deems someone a threat to themselves or others.
Twenty-five such laws were passed or expanded between 2015 and 2018 alone, according to a recent investigation by The Intercept, and this growth continues. This month, Massachusetts proposed an increase in funding to its civil commitment program for addiction, bringing it to about $23 million. In March, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California proposed a new system of “CARE Courts,” to expand civil commitment for homeless people with schizophrenia and often addiction.
But voluntary rehab has a better track record and is less likely to harm the people it is intended to help. Criminalization and coercion have helped create a patchwork of addiction programs that is harsh, low quality, underfunded, understaffed and too often fraudulent. Since legally mandated care is often the only way to get immediate and free treatment, a damaging cycle continues.
To do better, the United States needs more evidence-based treatment. And since the data shows that the best treatment is compassionate and inviting, coercion should be the last resort, not the first.

Mr. Norelli opposes compulsory drug treatment. He feels that being forced into treatment can push people in the other direction if they are not ready to quit. “Of the hundred people that came in at the same time I did, only a few completed it,” he said, adding that he is still disturbed by the “humiliating” way they were treated.

TO CONTINUE READING: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/30/opinion/forced-addiction-treatment.html?