Governor Peter Shumlin is planning to ask the Vermont Legislature to change the state's mental health laws to make it easier for doctors to administer state hospital patients who are refusing treatment.
He says Vermont laws are the most lenient in the country when it comes to giving patients the ability to refuse or reject drug treatment.
Shumlin made the comments while the Brattleboro Retreat psychiatric hospital is waiting to learn if it will be able to keep its federal funding after it failed an inspection last spring.
Shumlin tells the Brattleboro Reformer the state has to come up with a system that makes it easier for providers to use drugs to treat acutely ill patients.
