The Canadian provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta are all considering legislation that would allow parents to force their children into addiction rehabilitation programs, CBC News reported March 6.

The Manitoba proposal, for example, would allow parents to place their children involuntarily in detox for up to five days. The province's health minister, Theresa Oswald, called the plan a "tool of last resort."

"What we are introducing will be something that has a very high threshold," she said. "Children across Manitoba will not be locked up in detox just out of hand. It will require a major assessment. It will have to go in front of a judge."

Oswald said that short, involuntary stints in stabilization and assessment programs have worked in other nations "to allow a child to really be in their right mind to make decisions about their own detox or their own treatment." 

The law would apply to children under age 18.