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Tag Archives: laws
Del. becomes 14th state to pass ‘Good Samaritan’ law
The governor of Delaware signed so-called “Good Samaritan” legislation on Tuesday offering protection to anyone seeking medical help in the event of a drug or alcohol overdose, making Delaware the 14th state to pass such a measure. The law gives immunity from prosecution to people reporting an overdose, even if he or she has been involved in drug-related activity.
The bill also grants immunity from prosecution for offenses related to underage drinking.
Lawmakers approved the bill only after exempting higher level drug felonies from its immunity protections, a change that worried some critics who claimed the exemptions weakened the bill and would discourage people from reporting overdoses.
In Delaware, overdose deaths nearly tripled from 50 in 1999 to 137 in 2009, with a majority in recent years involving at least one prescription drug, according to this article.
New Mexico was the first state to pass a Good Samaritan law in 2007, followed by California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Washington, and the District of Columbia. According to TheFix.com, this year, nearly a dozen more states introduced bills: legislation in North Carolina and New Jersey succeeded, while other bills failed due to partisan bickering (Missouri, Mississippi and North Dakota), were killed in committee (New Hampshire and West Virginia), or ran out of time (Hawaii and Texas); Maine still has a live bill, but it isn’t likely to pass this year.
Posted in Crime, Informational, Policy & Regulation
Tagged addiction, Crime, Deaths, Delaware, Good Samarian, Good Samaritan laws, law, laws, narcotics, opiates, opioid, overdose, overdoses, oxycodone, OxyContin, pain medication, painkillers, pills, politics, prescription drug abuse, prescriptions, Schedule II narcotics, Teen deaths
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Vt. becomes 13th state to pass ‘Good Samaritan’ law
The governor of Vermont signed so-called “Good Samaritan” legislation on Wednesday offering protection to anyone seeking medical help in the event of a drug or alcohol overdose, making Vermont the 13th state to pass such a measure. The law extends both to people seeking assistance for themselves and for others, and seeks to prevent overdose deaths by empowering witnesses to report such episodes quickly without fear of legal repercussions, according to this article.
Drug overdoses were responsible for killing 73 people in Vermont last year, and remain the leading cause of injury death to state residents between the ages of 25 and 64, the article says.
Separately on Wednesday, the governor also gave the stamp of approval to a measure that will increase access to naloxone, a medication used to reverse opiate overdose, the article says. Under that law, doctors who prescribe naloxone to opiate-using patients and bystanders who administer the drug to an overdose victim will no longer be to subject to civil liabilities resulting from rare adverse reactions to the drug, according to the article.
More residents using Ky. involuntary treatment law
As the prescription drug and heroin epidemic in Kentucky has worsened, residents have been taking advantage of a law that allows parents or other concerned people to petition the court to order involuntary drug treatment for an adult, according to this article. The Matthew Casey Wethington Act for Substance Abuse Intervention, enacted in 2004, is named for Casey Wethington of Kenton County, who died of a heroin overdose in August 2002 at age 23, the article says. More than a dozen states have laws dealing with involuntary commitment for addiction treatment, including Florida and Ohio.
Fewer than 10 Casey’s Law petitions were filed in Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties each year from 2004 through 2008, the article notes, but cases for the three counties jumped to a total of 20 in 2009 and in 2010, then shot up to 66 in 2011 and 71 in 2012 as the opiate epidemic progressed.
Heroin use in Kentucky has exploded in the past decade, fed by sophisticated supply networks focused on mostly white suburban and rural users who have become hooked on prescription painkillers, according to an earlier article by the Cincinnati Enquirer.
