‘Absolute garbage’: Sask. physicians oppose forced addiction treatment

WATCH: Sask. doctors aren’t in favour of the incoming compassionate intervention act announced by the province earlier this week.

Doctors gathering in Saskatoon are voicing their displeasures with the province’s current handling of addictions treatment.

Dr. Karissa Brabant, a Moose Jaw family physician, stepped up to the microphone at the fall representative assembly of the Saskatchewan Medical Association (SMA) Friday to give her thoughts on the province’s intention to force drug addicts into treatment.

“Bullshit. This is absolute garbage,” she said after reading a social media post from Scott Moe. “The reason this is garbage is because the very central tenet of ethics in medicine is patient autonomy.”

When the legislative assembly resumed on Wednesday, the province announced its intentions to introduce the Compassionate Intervention Act.

The piece of legislation will make it a requirement for people whose addiction is creating a threat to themselves to enter an addiction treatment program.

“There’s need for us to continue working, with experts in this field,” Minister of Health Jeremy Cockrill said following the question-and-answer session.

“What we’ve heard from Saskatchewan people and what we’ve heard from Saskatchewan families is that they want more avenues for their family members to get into recovery.”

Brabant says the idea of forced treatment flies in the face of medical ethics where patients decide their form of treatment.

“If it’s directed at one person, that’s too many,” Brabant said. “It opens the door and precedent to do it to more people.”

Cockrill understands the state, or any level of government, delving into personal autonomy can be difficult to navigate.

“I mean, these can be controversial and thorny topics,” he said.

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Cockrill emphasizes the province’s efforts to getting people addicted to drugs into recovery programs.

Dr. Sean Groves, a family physician in La Ronge, feels there’s a disconnect with the health ministry.

“I’m not sure that when the minister says recovery, it means the same thing of what I think of when I say recovery,” he said.

Both Groves and Brabant say it’s difficult to focus on recovery alone until the root issues of someone’s addiction is being looked at.

Groves did some research of his own ahead of his trip into Saskatoon. Since the province announced its new plans to address addictions and homelessness in 2023, he’s noticed an additional 20 to 25 new cases of HIV in the La Ronge area.

As part of policy changes, the province began abandoning harm reduction efforts and last year stopped providing clean pipes for drug users.

Additionally, needle exchanges now need to receive used needles before handing over clean ones. Experts warned the move could increase transmission of HIV and Hepatitis C.

“A significant increase in the number of HIV infections that we’ve had over the last couple of years,” Groves said.

“I think the bigger issue is a lack of understanding of the continuum of care that’s required to get people to a point where recovery can be beneficial in their lives.”

Cockrill says other provinces are either implementing or exploring involuntary addictions treatment, and there’s more work and conversations necessary before specifics of how the process will work as he looks to include the greater public in those discussions.

“We have to balance that and find a path that’s going to obviously work for Saskatchewan families,” he said.