Derek Finkle: Involuntary care a better solution to the opioid crisis

This spring, the province opened 10 involuntary care beds at Surrey Pretrial centre and 18 beds at the Alouette jail in Maple Ridge for people with severe mental illness and addictions. Photo by Getty Images

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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.

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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.

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In December, for example, the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition released a policy statement opposing the “widespread use” of involuntary treatment claiming “There is limited evidence to suggest that involuntary substance use treatment is safe or effective.”

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Nevertheless, there is a growing chorus of voices — even on the left — that are clearly not paying much heed to the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition.

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In April, Larry Campbell, the former mayor of Vancouver who was recently appointed by David Eby’s NDP government as an advisor to address the mounting despair that is Vancouver’s notorious Downtown Eastside, said in a Global News interview that not only is he seeking more accountability from existing service providers for the mentally ill, addicted and brain damaged, but also that he didn’t understand why “everyone lights their hair on fire” when the prospect of involuntary care is raised.

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Campbell, during his term as mayor, was a harm reduction advocate who oversaw the opening of Canada’s first injection site in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in 2003. It’s remarkable that he now openly states his admiration for the voluntary treatment facilities in Alberta, which has coincided with the closure of some injection sites. Campbell wants the Downtown Eastside to follow suit with facilities where those needing care aren’t entering what he calls “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”