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New Report Makes a Powerful Case for Voluntary, Not Forced, Treatment for Addiction

rredick November 12, 2024
Photo credit: Drug Policy Org.

Allies in Recovery, like most organizations committed to responsible and ethical responses to substance use disorder (SUD), strongly favors rapid, simple, and voluntary access to treatment. Years of professional, high-quality studies reveal the hazards of relying on forced treatment in responding to the disease. Now a lengthy but crystal-clear report from the Drug Policy Alliance brings the facts and ethical arguments together in one document.

Most of us with a Loved One (LO) struggling with substance use will agree: recovery is a long and winding road. There are moments of surprising progress, and there are setbacks that can test both our strength and that of our LO. Given the inherent challenges, the last thing anyone needs is to confront policies that make those setbacks even more likely.

In its new report, the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) argues convincingly that forced treatment for SUD is one of those policies. The report defines forced treatment as either wholly involuntary or coerced through “this-or-something-worse” legal sentencing, in which people are asked to choose between treatment and traditional drug court, which often ends in jail time.

The DPA levels five core charges at forced treatment: that it can be deadly, raising the risk of overdose death upon the patient’s release; that it often causes harm even when it doesn’t kill; that it amounts to incarceration by another name; that its claimed effectiveness is not supported by evidence; and that it is fundamentally unethical. Lindsay LaSalle, Managing Director of Policy for the DPA, puts it concisely: “SUD treatment should be voluntary, effective, affordable, accessible, and appealing. And we need more of it.”

The full report offers a wealth of evidence to back up these arguments. It’s free for anyone to download and read. We hope that it will help policy makers, and anyone concerned with these questions, recognize the clear benefits of voluntary, accessible treatment.

Full Report: Report: The Drug Treatment Debate: Why Accessible and Voluntary Treatment Wins Out Over Forced – Drug Policy Alliance. You can also jump straight to this: executive summary.

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