“This is about love”: protest held outside the court against the involuntary treatment of drug addictions

“This is a reactionary, political decision to expand involuntary treatment, and I don’t think it’s rooted in science or the lived experiences of people who use drugs,” said Grace Burke, co-organizer of the protest.

Among the protesters was Corrine Woods, another Moms Stop the Harm member who lost her son to a drug overdose. He is concerned that involuntary care is not the best measure, as he believes that voluntary care supports are sorely lacking and would prefer to see investment here.

“I think it’s very, very wrong because there’s no proper or successful voluntary care. We have thousands and thousands of children who are losing their lives and who did ask for help. They go to the hospital, they ask their family doctors for help , they go to detox, sometimes they go to a sewage treatment plant (…) Our kids are asking for voluntary help and they’re not getting it,” said Woods.

“What you really don’t see is that these kids are not getting the voluntary care they need first. If we had voluntary care, we wouldn’t have to force our children into involuntary care,” he continued.

Even if involuntary care is expanded, Miller believes additional concerns could arise, primarily capacity. Explaining that voluntary care already suffers from capacity and accessibility issues, and that the involuntary care he has seen has already been at or above capacity, he believes that continuing to push for more involuntary treatment could have tragic consequences.

“They’re moving them around like they moved my son to the Lower Mainland for a forensic evaluation? It didn’t work for him. He ended up on the streets of Vancouver, not knowing anyone, lost and scared and placed in an SRO (occupation single room) funded by the government, infested with bugs, and he died alone, without family or friends,” Miller said.

Beyond the NDP and Tories, there are many examples of former drug users who say that involuntary treatment saved their lives, so for those in favor of expanding involuntary treatment, there are cases where has been a great success. While some protesters acknowledged it can work, they believe the harm it can cause outweighs the good.

“There are a lot of people coming out of involuntary care, reusing, relapsing and dying in massive numbers,” Miller said.

While protesters believe something needs to be done to address the drug crisis, those gathered today are pushing back strongly against involuntary care as an option.

Local news. Delivered free of charge Subscribe to our daily newsletter and get our top local stories delivered to your inbox every evening.