And Throw Away the Kilo –
April 20, 2019 – The law known as Section 35
Robin had become one of several thousand Massachusetts residents each year who ask the courts to force a loved one into addiction treatment under a state law known as Section 35. The law allows a family member, physician or police officer to ask the courts to involuntarily commit someone to substance use treatment. Dozens of states have civil commitment laws, but Massachusetts is believed to use it more aggressively than most states.
In the last fiscal year, more than 6,500 Massachusetts residents were ordered into treatment this way. After a court clinician in Hyannis, Mass., reviewed Robin’s request, a judge agreed that Sean’s substance use was dangerous and ordered him committed to up to 90 days of residential treatment. Sean had begged his mother in court that day not to go that route. He was being sent to a program, he told her, where he would be locked up and not allowed to continue taking the medication that was helping him with his addiction — methadone.
