It is also not clear why the print media is not covering this radical interpretation of the new laws which makes them even looser than the language of the law as passed.  Perhaps interpretation is not dramatic enough to make a good story, unfortunately, drama does not teach the public what they need to know:  that interpretation of their laws has been handed over to 3 men who are not legislators, not judges and not in the executive branch of government, 3 men who have not been elected nor appointed to any public office in fact, two law professors and a psychiatrist. 

For citizens affected by these laws, which is everyone, this interpretation and its implications are critical. 

You can now be committed if someone says there is a substantial likelihood that you will lose your job due to symptoms of mental illness.

You can now be committed if someone says there is a substantial likelihood that you could be evicted due to your mental illness or perceived mental illness.

You can now be committed if you are diabetic from taking the new psychiatric drugs and choose to stop taking your insulin at any time even though folks who did not become diabetic from the new drugs can not be committed for failing to take their insulin.  Apparently, the decision to risk amputation and kidney failure is always rational when made by the not yet diagnosed and always irrational when made by the psychiatrically labelled since Dr. Cohen argued with me more than once in taskforce meetings that non-compliant diabetics were making a rational decision.  Dr. Cohen has also written that he supports "rational suicide", whatever that might be, but clearly it only applies to "people like us" or I should say "people like him".  Personally, I do not believe in rational suicide and am a supporter of Not Dead Yet and would encourage anyone to try and live with their illness as long as they can, but hey, what do I know?  I'm not a psychiatrist, just a person who believes in life. 

Any hearsay or rumor of past actions or any slander or inaccuracy on an old mental health record can now be used to help lock you up against your will and force drugs on you.

According to the interpretation of Bonnie, Cohen and Monahan, if there is a 1 in 4 chance of serious harm/danger, you should be committed.  25% chance despite the Supreme Court of the United States decision that a standard of clear and convincing-more like 72% must be used in involuntary commitment.

Is it a coincidence that 3 white upper middle class men were allowed to interpret the laws of Virginia for every citizen?  I do not believe it is.  The mental health system in Virginia has been run by upper middle class white men since it began and continues to this day.  We have never had a woman Commissioner nor an African American Commissioner of our Department of Mental Health in Virginia, unlike other states.  We continue to act as if the white man knows best for women and for minorities in this state and we will all suffer for it. 

Moving out of this state where homophobia and ablism are now enshrined into law but basic health services are not funded  and the homeless are told to get a job without any help to do so is looking better and better and as soon as the real estate market comes back, if it does, I will.