http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tessie-castillo/what-do-prosecutors-and-d_b_5159938.html
What Do Prosecutors and District Attorneys Say About 911 Good Samaritan Laws?
With the drug overdose epidemic still raging, 911 Good Samaritan and
Naloxone Access laws are sweeping the country as states struggle to seek
solutions that can turn back the tide of deaths. Currently, 18 states
have implemented naloxone laws, 14 have medical amnesty laws on the
books, and many more have introduced bills to their general assemblies.
But while law enforcement, public health advocates, and people directly
affected by drug overdose are front and center in these debates, state
prosecutors and district attorneys also play a critical role in advocacy
efforts -- often for, but sometimes against, these laws.
Within
the legislative system, associations of prosecutors and district
attorneys carry a lot of clout and their support for a bill can be
essential to its passage. Case in point, in 2009 overdose prevention
advocates in Washington state helped introduce a 911 Good Samaritan
bill, but it quickly encountered opposition from the Washington
Association of Prosecuting Attorneys and the Washington Association of
Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, two organizations with enormous political
leverage. The associations argued that the bill, which granted limited
immunity from some drug charges to people who sought help for an
overdose, sent the "wrong message" on drug laws. As the 2009 legislative
session came to a close, it seemed clear that the bill could not move
forward with such powerful opposition, so advocates convened a working
group of stakeholders, including lawyers, law enforcement, public health
advocates and people who had lost loved ones to overdose, to make the
case for the law.
"In the end we were able to change [the
associations'] minds," explains Mark Cooke, Policy Counsel with the ACLU
of Washington, one of the main advocacy organizations for the bill.
"Law enforcement officers and prosecutors realized that most people
don't get in trouble for low level possession in overdose situations
anyways, and if we can save one life, it is worth passing the law. Also,
law enforcement from college campuses were some of the most vocal
proponents for the 911 Good Samaritan bill, which was inspired by
similar amnesty laws on college campuses."
When the legislative
session reconvened in 2010, the Washington Association of Sheriffs and
Police Chiefs came out in support of the 911 Good Samaritan bill, and
the Association of Prosecuting Attorney's agreed not to oppose it. That
year Washington became the second state in the nation (behind New
Mexico) to implement a 911 Good Samaritan law, paving the way for a
dozen other states to follow suit in the coming years.
Most
recently, Georgia passed a similar medical amnesty and naloxone access
law through their general assembly. The bill is currently awaiting
signature from Governor Nathan Deal, and will take effect immediately.
District Attorney Danny Porter says that prosecutors in Georgia opposed
the original version of the bill because it included immunity for people
who provided the drugs that resulted in an overdose. One of the main
arguments of opponents concerned a case in North Georgia where a mother
had given methadone to her child because she wanted to sleep. The child
overdosed and died.
"We had to work with the author of the bill
to reduce the range of immunities to a scope that was acceptable to
prosecutors," says D.A. Porter. "We were able to reach an agreement
quickly and help move the bill with our political leverage. We had no
problem with the underlying social aspect of the bill. Kids who overdose
shouldn't be afraid to get help."
Mike Noone, First Assistant to
the District Attorney in Chester County, has been part of advocacy
efforts for a 911 Good Samaritan law in Pennsylvania. The bill is
currently being debated, but Noone is optimistic that it will pass.
"Our
office advocates for the law because it's important to encourage people
to do the right thing if they are in an overdose situation and people
are dying," he says.
Prosecutors' support for overdose prevention
laws seems to indicate a paradigm shift away from the harshly punitive
drug laws of the late 20th century towards a more health-centered
approach to drug addiction. Attorney Corey Davis, Deputy Director for
the Network for Public Health Law, Southeastern Region, has been
studying and advising stakeholders on naloxone access laws since 2010
and has noticed the shift in attitudes.
"I think there's been a
changing tide in perceptions of the war on drugs in general," he says.
"We see a growing acceptance of marijuana, both for medical and
recreational use, relaxation of the crack/cocaine disparity, and
reductions in state prison populations after many years of steady
increases."
There are some who argue that the shift has to do with
the danger and prevalence of prescription drugs, which are often abused
by people of power and affluence. With the crack cocaine epidemic
focused mostly in inner cities, or methamphetamine use most popular in
poor rural areas, it was easy for people who make and enforce laws to
crack down hard on drug users. But now, with drugs and overdose creeping
into their own medicine cabinets, their own homes, with the suburban
and middle class children of powerful people at risk, the laws are
starting to change.
Attorney Mark Sigmon, a lawyer with Graebe
Hanna & Sullivan PLLC in Raleigh, N.C., lost a family member from a
narcotic overdose and now supports laws that encourage people to seek
help for an overdose and increase access to the opiate overdose
antidote, naloxone.
"For many years it was widely accepted among
lawyers and judges that the penalties for drug crimes were too harsh,
but no politician wanted to run on reducing those penalties. However,
that ice is beginning to thaw," he says. "I believe that when both
common sense and data suggest that we can save lives at relatively
little cost [with naloxone and 911 Good Samaritan laws], there's no
reason not to do it. To sacrifice those lives because of irrational
discomfort or stigma is not just bad policy, it's immoral."
Attorney
Davis agrees. "We now have a fair amount of evidence as to what works
to reduce the likelihood that a person will commit crime, from quality
pre-school and lead abatement all the way through evidence-based drug
treatment and structured social learning," he says. "We also have a lot
of evidence as to what works to get people who are using drugs
problematically, particularly opioids, to start using them more
responsibly or stop using them altogether. It's time we started making
laws based on evidence instead of centuries-old prejudices."
That
prosecutors and district attorneys, who were once 911 Good Samaritan and
naloxone law's stiffest opponents, are now often its main advocates, is
testament to the winds of change in the United States. What's left now
is for advocates to continue to capitalize on this momentum so that
policy change translates into real results -- lives saved and families
prevented from grieving.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tessie-castillo/what-do-prosecutors-and-d_b_5159938.html
