Involuntary Treatment: Criminalization by another name

Introduction

This position paper is endorsed by organizations and individuals who call for the abolition of involuntary treatment, including opposition to the passage of any policy or legislation that expands, sanctions, or encourages the practice.

Rather than supporting expanded involuntary or carceral treatment, we endorse supports and services that directly meet people’s material needs, built on a framework of consent, capacity, cultural safety, and peer leadership.

We call on all levels of government to invest in robust access to voluntary treatment options, including primary care, detox, treatment programs, publicly funded counselling services, residential mental health services, harm reduction programming, safe supply, family programming, culturally affirming options, and treatment modalities that reflect the intersecting identities of all those who seek and/or desire mental health and substance use support and care.

Recommendations

Invest in robust access to voluntary treatment options, including primary care, detox, treatment programs that have strict regulatory oversight, harm reduction programming, safe supply, family programming, culturally affirming options, and treatment modalities that reflect the intersecting identities of people who use drugs. All voluntary options should be available immediately upon request and accessible across inner-city, rural, and remote areas.
Immediately fund and scale up safe supply programs to ensure a regulated and predictable supply of drugs is accessible to all.
Immediately eliminate all police involvement and power under the provincial Mental Health Act, particularly the ability to apprehend someone using an officer-based assessment; as well as repeal any potentially intersecting provisions, regulations and legislation that grants law enforcement a healthcare scope, including the warning and referrals subsection of federal Bill C-5, and the 'alternative measures' embedded into BC’s decriminalization framework.
Prevent the expansion of legislation that broadens apprehension criteria to include overdose.
Eliminate any form of involuntary and/or coercive treatment, including BC legislation, as well as any umbrella agency-level policy (i.e., employer or union policies that mandate employees into involuntary treatment programs).
Repeal all legislation and regulations that are used to disproportionately target Black, Indigenous, and racialized communities.
Repeal all legislation and regulations that are used to target people who use drugs and disabled people. There is already existing legislation that permits forced treatment against these groups. It is violent and unjust and must be eliminated.