They tried to make me go to rehab, but I said 'Apply better evidence-based policymaking'

ACT has released a policy of forcing people on the benefit for addiction into rehab. I saw it on the news tonight, but I can't find it online. Maybe they regret it. I certainly do.

Leaving aside the irony of a twerking lycra-clad David Seymour lecturing other people about bad life choices, let’s discuss why this is not a good idea.

1. Forced rehab doesn't work.

2. Thanks to mental health workforce shortages, there's not enough rehab to go around.

3. That means forcing some people into rehab would entail politicians overruling qualified professionals on who should get treatment - pushing the forced people to the top of the queue, and displacing others who actually want the service.

4. Displacing those people might mean they too end up unable to work and on the benefit, so even the rationale of saving taxpayer money is flimsy.

5. There's only 4000 people on the benefit for addiction issues anyway, so the cost of their benefits is sweet eff all in the scheme of things.1

6. A full half of those people are struggling with alcohol. Alcohol is a highly dangerous and problematic drug sold with only weak restrictions, making health problems as inevitable as they are profitable. And good health is not shared equally in our society. Short version: poor non-Pākehā people need not apply.

7. Alcohol issues are rife. They cause endless problems for people of all walks of life. It's the luck of the draw which particular problems alcohol causes for a given person - whether they have the resources to hold on to a job, or whether they can't. By the time someone ends up on the benefit because of addiction issues, things are very, very tough: it's not parties and glamour and fun times flipping the bird to the establishment. That's why there's only 4000 of these folks. They, their families and loved ones go through a lot already, without their pain being turned into a political football. Making people with addiction a clickbait announcement is a failure in every sense humans can fail - intellectual, fiscal, ethical, spiritual.

8. Actually, that last thing isn't a policy thing. It's more of a 'don't be a dick' thing.