“Amid an opioid addiction epidemic that is killing more than 90 Americans every day, there is a growing movement to make it easier for relatives and health care providers to quickly secure court orders to forcibly confine and treat people who are addicted to drugs.
Most states have civil commitment laws primarily designed to protect people with mental illness from themselves and others. Many of the laws include drug addiction and alcoholism as a justification for temporary confinement, or at least don’t preclude it.
But in practice, most commitment laws have been ineffective when it comes to people who use heroin and other opioids, in part because some judges have been leery of taking away a person’s civil liberties for what society has long perceived as a moral failing.”
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/support-grows-for-civil-commitment-of-opioid-users_us_594292fce4b03e17eee0898f
Source: HuffingtonPost.com – June 15, 2017
