HADLEY — The Northampton-based opioid prevention coalition Hampshire HOPE will hold a forum to discuss a state law allowing for the court-ordered commitment of those struggling with intractable substance-use disorders.
The controversial law, known as Section 35, allows someone to be involuntarily committed to treatment — including in a jail or prison — if that person is deemed to have a “likelihood of serious harm” related to their substance use. The meeting will take place on Friday, July 12, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at Hadley Farms Meeting House.
“It’s been a topic that our coalition and our community has been thinking about more and more lately,” said J. Cherry Sullivan, Hampshire HOPE coordinator.
Among the panelists at Friday’s forum will be a judge who fields Section 35 petitions, people who have been committed for treatment through the law, advocates who will share the experiences of family members of those who have been committed and the sheriff who runs Hampden County’s Section 35 treatment facility.
Sullivan said that Section 35 is a topic that elicits a broad range of feelings and experiences.
Some critics of the law are opposed to any court-mandated treatment, particularly when it is in a jail or corrections environment, Sullivan said. But there are also those who say Section 35 was what saved their life, she added.
Friday’s forum is meant to unpack those feelings — to understand that broad range of experiences, to allow community members to get basic information from officials and to have a conversation about the law, Sullivan said.
As for Hampshire HOPE, Sullivan said the coalition is concerned with providing the best help possible to those who are at risk of being committed under Section 35, those who are committed and those who are leaving treatment.
“What are the things they need and how best can we support them?” Sullivan asked. She noted that people who are experiencing a long period of abstinence from opioids — those leaving jail or long-term treatment, for example — are at an increased likelihood of overdose.
“There are a lot of questions that people have been having, both coalition members and the general community, about what is the process of Section 35, what does it mean if myself or my loved one is sectioned,” Sullivan said.
Last August, the state created a commission to review the efficacy of Section 35, which held its last meeting on June 27.
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.