In many cases, the benefits these programs were supposed to bring to entire communities simply have not arrived, Chris Selley writes.
. Blaming harm-reduction for the opioid crisis is like blaming vaccines for COVID-19. But Poilievre seems to have touched a nerve — again, understandably so.Article content
Proof, perhaps, that there are no simple answers: Both British Columbia’s NDP government and Alberta’s United Conservative government are both now looking in earnest at the idea of involuntary commitment for drug treatment. Team Harm Reduction is mostly horrified by the notion, and the idea certainly makes me queasy as a civil libertarian.
But there’s disappointingly little evidence to suggest compulsory treatment is likely to stick — and considerable evidence that “graduates” of such programs are much more likely to overdose fatally upon release than those who attend treatment voluntarily. That’s intuitive, of course: By definition, people who seek treatment voluntarily feel themselves more ready to pursue long-term recovery.
That said, I’m more worried about the practicality than the philosophy. Canada didn’t just deinstitutionalize mental health care in the 1960s on a lark, or because the idea had become academically fashionable. Especially in the later years, after the Second World War, the status quo became an obvious failure: Overcrowding, understaffing, dodgy treatments, isolating patients from their families, often providing little hope of release.
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