911 callers may avoid drug charges

OLYMPIA – Starting today, Washington residents can call 911 to get help for someone suffering a drug overdose, even if they, too, have taken or possess illegal drugs.

Washington becomes the second state in the nation with a “911 Good Samaritan Law,” which health and law enforcement officials hope will lower the number of deaths from drug overdoses. Under the law passed earlier this year by the Legislature, neither the overdose victim nor a person who calls for help can be arrested for simple possession.

It doesn’t provide immunity for more serious drug crimes such as trafficking, or give someone with outstanding warrants a “get out of jail free” card. But a judge can give someone who calls 911 a lighter sentence if they were arrested after seeking medical help for an overdose victim.

Washington averages more than two deaths from drug overdoses a day. The state has seen such a rise in fatal overdoses that it is now the leading cause of accidental death, higher than auto accidents or other kinds of trauma, Attorney General Rob McKenna said.

Of the more than 700 overdose deaths last year, more than 500 involved prescription drugs, although sometimes they were obtained illegally or combined with illegal drugs or alcohol.

The law is a step toward reducing those numbers, but isn’t a cure-all, McKenna added: “Overdose deaths are rising so fast that we’re going to need a series of tools to bend that curve.”

But it could encourage people to call for help more quickly, or stay around when they bring an overdosing friend to an emergency room to tell medical staff what they know about the combination of drugs and alcohol that were taken.

Emergency rooms experience what they refer to as “drop and go” on overdoses and other kinds of trauma, said Cathy Simchuk, vice president of emergency and trauma for Providence Sacred Heart and Holy Family. The number of patients being treated for overdose is on the rise, mainly because of increased access to drugs, and decreased resources for treatment, she said.

The good Samaritan law will save lives by enabling people to get faster treatment, said John Gahagan of Seattle, whose son died of an overdose nearly two years ago: “It recognizes that drug addiction is not a character flaw, it’s a disease.”

Caleb Banta-Green of the University of Washington Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute said it may take a year or more to measure the impact of the law, because the public has to become aware of it. But it does address a basic fact about overdose deaths: “The majority of times there is an overdose, other people are present.”