Law Commons^™

A Trip Through Employment Law: Protecting Therapeutic Psilocybin Users In The Workplace, Benjamin Sheppard

Journal of Law and Health

In 2020, Oregon voters legalized therapeutic psilocybin in response to a plethora of scientific studies showing symptom reduction for depression, anxiety, substance use disorders, opioid addictions, migraines, other mental illnesses, HIV/AIDS, and cancer. The legal rethinking regarding therapeutic psilocybin continues in both state legislatures and city councils. Yet, despite state and local legalization or decriminalization of therapeutic psilocybin it remains illegal under the federal Controlled Substances Act. This tension between local and federal law places therapeutic psilocybin users and their employers in a difficult position. Because all types of psilocybin use remain illegal under federal law, a zero-tolerance drug use …

"Defunding" The Criminality Of Mental Illness By Funding Specialized Police Training: How Additional Training And Resources For Dealing With Mental Health Will Be Beneficial For All Sides, Margaret Ahern

Journal of Law and Health

The momentous public outcry for police reform is the result of police encounters ending fatally, which is notably sixteen times more likely for individuals suffering from mental illness in the United States. These horrific incidents highlight the systemic failings of traditional police departments training and its failure to provide officers with the necessary skills to de-escalate crisis situations involving the vastly overrepresented mentally ill population involved in the United States justice system. This article demonstrates that effective police training involving crisis intervention and de-escalation techniques equip police officers with knowledge and skills that enable them to contrive more positive outcomes …

Homeless And Helpless: How The United States Has Failed Those With Severe And Persistent Mental Illness, Ashley Gorfido

Journal of Law and Health

The United States has failed its citizens who suffer from severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI). Homelessness is one of the most obvious manifestations of this failure. The combination of a lack of effective treatment, inadequate entitlement programs such as Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), and subpar housing options form systemic barriers that prevent people suffering from mental illness from being able to obtain adequate housing. Cultural beliefs within the United States regarding who is homeless and what homelessness means also play a significant role in the development of positively impactful social welfare programs.

Part II of this Note reviews …

Supporting Mothers With Mental Illness: Postpartum Mental Health Service Linkage As A Matter Of Public Health And Child Welfare Policy, Jesse Krohn, Msed, Jd, Meredith Matone, Drph, Mhs

Journal of Law and Health

Through our work in youth advocacy as, respectively, legal and public health professionals, we are all too aware of the high levels of health care fragmentation experienced during pregnancy and postpartum by poor, young mothers of color. Meredith Matone’s research highlights the heightened risk of fragmentation for girls with histories of child welfare involvement. For example, she found that 66.7% of young mothers who had resided in out-of-home placements and who had taken antipsychotic medication prior to becoming pregnant failed to fill prescriptions for antipsychotics in their first postpartum year. Put another way, two-thirds of these vulnerable young mothers—a far …

Drug-Induced Alteration Of Psychotic Behavior: Who Benefits?, Gerald J. Schaefer

Journal of Law and Health

Given the debilitating nature of psychosis, those affected are often unable to give informed consent about taking the medication. A crucial question is whether civil or criminal authorities can force the individual to take antipsychotic medication and under what circumstances this should be permitted. This review will focus on the current legal status of involuntary treatment with antipsychotics in various patient populations. The constitutional issues involved will be considered in light of both the patient's and the civil or criminal institution's rights and duties. A review of the literature suggests there is a critical need for a balanced position on …

Paternalism, Civil Commitment And Illness Politics: Assessing The Current Debate And Outlining A Future Direction, Bruce A. Arrigo

Journal of Law and Health

The purpose of this article is to examine critically the role that both law and psychiatry have played in casting mentally ill persons as deviants, citizen / outsiders caught in a crossfire of illness politics. This examination will focus on those values protected and privileged by the medical and legal professions as reflected in confinement law and policy primarily during the last quarter of the twentieth century. The social, economic and political power these disciplines exercise in the lives of psychiatric citizens raises significant questions concerning the future of involuntary civil commitment both from a clinical and justice policy perspective. …

O'Connor V. Donaldson: The Death Of The Quid Pro Quo Argument For A Right To Treatment, Thomas P. Bliss

Cleveland State Law Review

On June 26, 1975, the Supreme Court was confronted with the controversial issue of whether there is a constitutionally guaranteed right to treatment for nondangerous persons who have been involuntarily and civilly committed to mental institutions. The Court avoided this long advocated issue and created the potential for future litigation by holding that a state cannot constitutionally confine a nondangerous individual solely for custodial care if such person can live safely in the outside world, without a finding of more than mere mental illness. This comment will discuss the decision in terms of the most volatile and frequently urged constitutional …

Civil Rights Of The Mentally Ill In Ohio, Robert L. Tuma

Cleveland State Law Review

Mental illness is principally a medical problem, but there are basic legal considerations to be observed, and these considerations should not be impatiently brushed aside as "mere technicalities" of legal procedure. On the other hand, legal provisions relating to hospitalization of mental patients should be viewed by legislators, lawyers, and judicial officials as mechanism for prompt and effective care and treatment, for safeguarding civil rights, and for protecting the community. All these aspects are important and undue concern for one aspect should not work to the detriment of the others. Moreover, in actual practice, no legal provision should defeat the …

Reappraisal Of Eugenic Sterilization Laws, Elyce Zenoff

Cleveland State Law Review

Since sterilization is a drastic remedy and generally a permanent infringement of bodily integrity, those affected by laws authorizing it are entitled to every reasonable precaution. Thus far they have not been adequately protected. The sterilization of persons without legal authorization, before testing the constitutionality of the laws, sterilization under unconstitutional laws, and the lack of representation by counsel, are all clear illustrations of this disregard of rights. The fact that scientific opinion differs as to the value of sterilization certainly indicates that the merits of this type of legislation should be re-evaluated.