Police force people to treatment using Section 35 on Cape Cod

Gosnold Treatment Center, one of the country's foremost substance use disorder (SUD) programs, has police officers who work with it to urge people with addiction to go to treatment. If they won't go, however, there is always a 50‐year‐old Massachusetts commitment law. Last year alone, as the Falmouth Police Department saw opioid use and overdoses increase in the Cape Cod town, the agency petitioned the court 74 times under Section 35 of the Massachusetts General Law Chapter 123 to commit a person with an SUD to a locked treatment center. Usually, patients don't want to go, but their family wants them to. Because Section 35 is a last resort meant to save someone from dying, the law is viewed as “intervention,” according to Falmouth Clerk Magistrate Edward B. Teague. In a Jan. 5 story in The Falmouth Enterprise , Teague added that the judge decides whether to “section” someone, in the vernacular. Someone could be forced into treatment for up to 90 days after evaluation by a health care professional. Prospective patients are entitled to a defense attorney and must be in danger to themselves or others and have lost the ability to make a decision for themselves. “They are being civilly committed,” Teague told the Enterprise . “They are handcuffed, put in a police car, transported to the courthouse and put in lockup.” Typically, the sentence — and that's what it is — is for two to three weeks. Judges usually grant most of the Section 35 requests; in 2018, sectioning resulted in more than 6,000 people being forced into treatment. Most of the Falmouth sections are due to opioids. Anyone who overdoses and recovers is visited by the police at home, in the company of a Gosnold counselor. Only repeat overdoses trigger Section 35 requests. The law is obviously a boon to treatment providers and families, as well as to patients who ultimately benefit. But it is not without controversy, as forced treatment is considered unethical by some and ineffective by others.