Derek Finkle: Involuntary care a better solution to the opioid crisis |
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Derek Finkle: Involuntary care a better solution to the opioid crisis
B.C. and Alberta are leading the way on initiatives that will likely be adopted elsewhere
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B.C. Premier David Eby faced a media scrum on July 10 to announce something that just a few short years ago would have been unthinkable — the province would soon be opening two new involuntary care facilities, one in Prince George (72 beds) and the other in Surrey (60 beds), for people suffering from mental health disorders, serious addiction issues and the brain injuries these addictions often cause.
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This triad of afflictions — which has exploded across the country during the illegal fentanyl crisis — is also being addressed by the Alberta government through a similar involuntary initiative, last year’s Compassionate Intervention Act.
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In late June, the provincially funded Canadian Centre of Recovery Excellence (CoRE), a Calgary-based research organization, announced the establishment of its Compassionate Intervention Expert Group, which includes 11 “renowned world-class experts in addiction medicine, psychiatry, law, public policy, Indigenous health, recovery science and evaluation from leading institutions across Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom,” who will help guide how the act is applied.
Predictably, organizations that advocated for the decriminalization of street drugs and the proliferation of injection sites are none too happy about the growing push to replace “safe consumption” sites with a modern version of quasi-institutional involuntary care.
In December, for example, the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition released a policy statement opposing the “widespread use” of........