I Wish I Could Say I’m Surprised.
I can’t fucking believe we’re actually having this conversation. Hold up, actually, I CAN believe we’re having this conversation… but I really wish we weren’t.
Why? Because we’re in Alberta, the land where ideology outweighs the rights, dignity, and safety of marginalized folks. Where the far right, who have very specific ideas about how people should act and behave (all while yelling "don’t tread on me"), are the ones keeping our premier in power. And she’s power hungry. She’s faced political setbacks before, and she’s not about to risk another one now. So, she does what she needs to do to keep the knives out of her back and bows to the worst voices in the room.
I am someone with lived experience of substance use. I do not currently use substances, I identify myself as sober. Which is exactly why I feel so strongly about protecting the rights and dignity of people who do use drugs. I’ve been there. And I know that if anyone had tried to tell me what to do, let alone lock me up and force me to undergo treatment, I would’ve told them to go fuck themselves and then promptly lost my goddamn mind.
Recovery is a deeply personal process. It looks different for everyone. For me, it didn’t even start until I made the choice to begin. And even then, I relapsed. But it was 2018, and my substances of choice weren’t poisoned.
So, when I read the Compassionate Intervention Act, I feel sick. I feel terrified for the people still out there surviving however they can, because this law is a death sentence in disguise. There’s no clear threshold of harm. No oversight. No due process. No aftercare. No plan. And way too much police involvement. And who’s going to get targeted? Houseless folks. Racialized folks. Indigenous folks who are already over-surveilled, over-policed, over-incarcerated, and over-represented in intervention programs. This isn’t care. This is carceral logic dressed up in a new uniform.
And can we talk about the hypocrisy? The same people who fought tooth and nail against vaccine mandates, screaming about government overreach and personal freedom, are somehow perfectly fine with denying trans kids access to life-saving gender-affirming care and locking up people who use drugs. So, when your autonomy is under threat, it’s tyranny. But when it’s someone else’s body? Suddenly, that kind of control is “compassionate.” That’s not just hypocritical… it’s violent. It’s picking and choosing who deserves rights based on your own comfort. And let me be clear: everyone deserves bodily autonomy. Not just people who look, act, or live like you do.
Don’t just take my word for it. Read the research… which, by the way, the UCP clearly didn’t. Every major study says the same thing: coerced treatment doesn’t work. Trauma without choice doesn’t heal, it deepens. You don’t fix a wound by tearing it open and demanding it behave.
Let me break the Compassionate Intervention Act down:
1. No consent
2. No bodily autonomy
3. Police, not community
4. No judicial review
5. No definition of “harm”
6. No trauma-informed or culturally-safe care
7. No aftercare
8. No harm reduction supports post-release
This is not treatment. This is control.
You can lock someone up and force them into detox. Make them sit through group therapy. Strip-search them. Medicate them. But if they aren’t ready, if they don’t want it, it won’t last. And forcing it can, and will, make things worse. Real trauma. Real risk. Real death. Because when you release them into community, not only will they be traumatized beyond belief but, in addition, their tolerance has been shot to hell. Which means that if they decide to use the toxic, unregulated substances currently prevalent in Alberta, the likelihood is they are going to suffer a drug poisoning or an overdose and potentially die.
So, when someone says, “Well, it’s for their own good,” I need you to hear this: You don’t get to decide that. Neither do I. No one does. People who use drugs deserve dignity, autonomy, and respect. Full stop.
This Act isn’t about compassion. It’s about control.
— Kira Steele