Why is this so important?

This legislation is so very important for many reasons, one of them being that early drug use can basically arrest someone’s emotional development at the age of first use. When someone begins using drugs around 14 or 15 years old, they have the emotionality and rationality of a 14 year old, even as they become a young adult and into adulthood. The premise for allowing the intervention of loved ones on the behalf of someone who is addicted to drugs lies within this understanding: Someone reacting emotionally as an adolescent (when most addicts’ drug use begins) and who is suffering from an ultimately fatal disease, cannot respond in a normal, healthy way and choose to get treatment. Currently, parental or other family intervention is denied by law and even discouraged, at times. Pennsylvania HB 1692 provides a means of intervening with someone is unable to recognize their own need for treatment due to their impairment from drugs.