Albany, NY – A bill proposed in New York would protect callers making emergency 911 reports at the scene of drug overdoses from being charged with drug possession themselves.
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The state legislators sponsoring the so-called Good Samaritan bill say the measure is aimed at saving lives. Advocates from the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence say they want to make sure someone watching someone overdose won’t be stopped from calling for help out of fear of arrest.
Overdoses can take one to three hours and that allows a lot of time for help to arrive.
The bill won’t protect drug dealers.
The measure is being presented in a news conference in Albany on Tuesday. Parents who lost children to drug overdoses will be among those attending the news conference.
A very sensible bill.
I don’t understand the legislation behind penalizing for drug possession. If a drug user wants to quit, he goes to a drug rehab. Wouldn’t his presence in a rehab clinic clearly label him a possessor of drugs? Why isn’t he arrested just for being in the clinic? How do law enforcers distinguish between a person who should be arrested and a person who isn’t? What happens if the police find drugs on his person/ in his body on the way to a rehab clinic?