Emergency Commitment of Substance Use Disorder Patients (H 5751)

Similar to legislation introduced in previous years, this bill would have allowed a physician to request a hold on a substance-abusing patient and would have provided a process for a court hearing to determine if emergency commitment would be appropriate for the patient. We argued that although the bill is well-meaning, it  raised massive due process concerns and could be counterproductive to the goal of recovery. After hearing objections from the medical and substance abuse communities, the bill was amended to instead create a special legislative commission to examine the effects of involuntary commitment. This bill passed the House, and we will closely monitor the commission it creates during the next session.