Compulsory Treatment for Drug-dependent Persons: Justifications for a Public Health Approach to Drug Dependency (From Confronting Drug Policy: Illicit Drugs in a Free Society, P 258-290, 1993, Ronald Bayer and Gerald M. Oppenheimer, eds. - See NCJ-159507)

• NCJ Number: 159516
• Author(s): L O Gostin
• Date Published: 1993
• Length: 33 pages
• Sale Source: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article proposes a program for involuntary treatment for persons who are dependent on illicit drugs and who can benefit from treatment programs.

Abstract

The author attempts to justify compulsory treatment, and the attendant loss of civil liberties, by demonstrating benefits to the individual drug user and to society, and by proving the efficacy of compulsory treatment. The article focuses on two different forms of mandatory treatment, i.e., civil commitment, which authorizes the State to institutionalize a person with due process but without bringing a criminal charge, and diversion from the criminal justice system, which involves removing a person already charged or convicted of an offense from indictment, trial, or sentencing. The proposal outlined here for compulsory treatment accommodates the elements of client agreement, the right to procedural due process, eligibility requirements that focus on drug dependence and susceptibility to treatment, dangerousness, proportionality and duration of confinement, the least restrictive alternative, and the right to treatment. 60 notes and 81 references