There are already laws in place to stop people from behavior that hurts others. If an addict steals from you, you can have him put in jail. If the court is made to understand that the problem is addiction, often the addict will be remanded to treatment instead of jail. That, if I understand it, is what is happening in the case of the boy on Dr. Phils show. Behavior that endangers other people is illegal. It's also still illegal to commit outright suicide in the U.S. If a family can show that a person is a danger to themselves... they can be committed to treatment. That treatment has about as much chance of ultimately succeeding as leaving them to their own devices, but at least if you're talking about someone who is using lethal doses daily, a rehab can buy you few months. Anyway... those laws are there. But it requires a lot of proof to have someone commited for a reason. It simply can't be made easy for someone who just doesn't like someone else's behavior to have them locked up for it. That would mean my friend's could have me locked up for stupidly funneling money toward Dino's drug problem. And their friends could have them locked up for bailing me out when I did.
Lunatic is a big word. If you really do live with one of those, you do have legal recourse. When Dino was roaming the streets buying crack and learning to steal, it was a rehab issue. And it was go or be forced to go by his parents. He went. It took several tries before the dent happened. And it wasn't the treatment I would have selected that finally seemed to take... it was what he selected. Now he smokes pot, drinks a little and gets mean, irritating and slothful. Those are bubble bath issues. Either I tell him to get lost or I deal with it. There are no laws against his hurting my feelings. Should there be? Then there would have to be a law against hanging around with someone who hurts your feelings.
Hugs,
Smoke