Some medical professionals say detaining highly intoxicated people for up to three days could put lives at risk if it’s not accompanied by proper care.
On Wednesday, the Manitoba Legislature passed the NDP government’s Bill 48, the Protective Detention and Care of Intoxicated Persons Act, which will allow it to establish a “protective care centre,” or detox facility.
But Dr. Jim Simm, the province’s former chief psychiatrist, said there’s little precedent backing it up.
“There’s been several studies looking at involuntary treatment for substance use. The results are generally actually worse,” he said.
“I am skeptical [the centre] would have positive results, and [it has] the added risk of medical complications without proper medical supervision.”
Involuntary detention is the unnecessarily cruel answer. It’s punishing people for the crime of being traumatized, and does so by healing even more trauma onto them, making them even less capable of recovering.
Involuntary detention the answer of choice by idiots and the ignorant, and by those for whom abject cruelty is the entire point.
Utterly shocking that this came from the NDP and not any Conservative Party - this is straight up the conservative’s alley, as the NDP tend to be far more science-aware and science-accepting than this.