KENTUCKY — Since it was enacted in 2005, Casey’s Law has helped over 6,000 people with substance abuse disorders across the Commonwealth.

Casey’s Law, originally was passed by the state legislature in 2004, and it allows family members of an individual struggling with substance use disorder to lawfully intervene and request court-ordered addiction treatment for their loved one. Casey’s Law is named for Matthew “Casey” Wethington, a Kentuckian who died of a drug overdose at age 23 after his parents unsuccessfully tried to send him to rehab.

State Representative Kim Moser (R-Taylor Mill), carried HB 362 during the 2022 General Assembly session because she quote, “felt the law needed to be bolstered to stay in effect.”

“It has saved a lot of folks and it has given families opportunities to get their loved ones into treatment when they really felt like they had no recourse. But it had been challenged on constitutionality, on the constitutionality or the question of whether or not taking someone’s rights away because it is a serious issue, and we want to make sure that we’re doing this legally. And the burden of proof was probable cause and really, the court felt that was a very low burden of proof. And so what we did was increased the burden of proof to beyond a reasonable doubt, which is a pretty high bar. And a lot of the advocates were really nervous about this and you know, there was no intention to make this more difficult for families because they’re already in a really difficult situation. But we want to make sure that this is not going to be challenged or in any way thrown out. And so what we’ve learned is that many judges when they are writing their orders, are already writing to this burden of proof to beyond a reasonable doubt. And so, you know, the more conversations we have, the more that we’ve learned that this really was not going to be as difficult as we thought it might be.,” explains Rep. Moser.