San Francisco woman breeds rats, releases them in public parks

[dixiegrrrrl]

17. The word you are searching for is civil rights.

Here's the problem....people cannot, under current law, be forced to be treated against their will for whatever condition they have that is a public problem
UNLESS
said person is an immediate danger to self and/or others.
And even the length of involuntary treatment is limited.
Animal hoarding has just recently become recognized as a mental health issue, but not to the degree that one can be treated involuntarily for it.

the whole issue of treating mentally ill or addicted people runs into a conflict of gov't control versus individual rights.

another point to consider: I worked in Mental Health for years, with the power to have people locked up for at least 72 hours for evaluation, so they could be seen by a psychiatrist and later by a judge.
One pen stroke and the cops would haul somebody off to a locked facility..boom, just like that.
No appeal, no questions, just my word, backed by the law that said I could.
Having that kind of power made me very uneasy, all the time.

Society could address this woman's problems.
What if we wrote a law that society could grab this woman, lock her up, force her to take medications for the rest of her life, keep her confined to prevent her from returning to her former life style?
And gave that power to people at the city/state level who had no problem at all with prolonged treatment by force?