Senate committee approves substitute to let courts approve voluntary detox plans and order residential treatment

The Senate committee agreed to a committee substitute for Senate Bill 761 after extended floor discussion that focused on how courts and health facilities would handle people in detoxification and voluntary treatment agreements.

The bill would create a procedure for judges to hold a hearing to accept a person’s voluntary treatment agreement or, if a person will not agree, consider facility recommendations and enter an order requiring a specified level of care. "This would be like a mini, final commitment hearing for substance use," said Miss Tackett, counsel to the committee, describing how the process would work in practice. She told the committee the facility could recommend that "they go to a 28 day residential, treatment facility. We could order that."

Committee members pressed for clarity on decision points and on who determines whether a person has "remedied" their substance use disorder. "That would be the medical professionals, not the court," counsel said, adding that due‑process protections would be built into the hearing process. Several senators asked that the Supreme Court of Appeals be asked to promulgate rules to implement the changes; the committee adopted an amendment to request court rulemaking and placed language specifying the court be asked to promulgate rules to implement the 2025 amendments.

Senators debated whether the bill should include an effective‑on‑passage clause; counsel said that, as drafted, immediate effectiveness was not appropriate. After discussion the committee chair declared the committee substitute as amended agreed to, and the vice chair moved that the substitute be reported to the full Senate with a recommendation that it pass. The motion carried and the substitute will be reported to the full Senate.