After years of ignoring the problem, a movement is growing in the state legislature to curb drug overdoses. Three bills introduced in the last week would eliminate drug possession laws in some cases—not in the name of hatin' on the big, bad drug war—but just saving lives.

Fatal drug overdoses in Washington have been climbing since the early 1990s—spurred by the popularity heroin and Oxycontin. By 2006, the Department of Health reports, 707 people died from drug overdoses here. Nationally, it is the second leading cause of injury deaths, second to car accidents and ahead of shootings.

Of course, the big, bad drug-war debate will continue till we’re blue in the face over whether criminalizing drugs makes them more appealing—like the taboo cookie jar that makes cookies irresistible—or that the criminal penalties serve as a deterrent. But there's no question that penalties promote fatal overdoses: People don’t call medics when a friend is overdosing for fear that he or she will get arrested for possessing drugs. I wrote about the problem two years ago, focusing on the death of Danielle McCarthy, then 16, who had a bad reaction to ecstasy.

Danielle was still somewhat coherent but she was slipping in and out of consciousness, periodically waking up to vomit. If there was any suspicion that Danielle was having a bad reaction to the ecstasy or that something else was seriously wrong, what happened next should have confirmed it: At around 4:00 a.m. Danielle tensed up. She began to shake. She looked like she was having a seizure.

Nobody called 911.

Danielle McCarthy's friends are douchebags for not calling 911—the fuckers. But the solution is simple: provide amnesty to people who call for medical help so that they actually do call for medical help.

However, bills over the past four legislative sessions have floundered. They were perceived as a liberal Seattle thing, says former sponsor senator Adam Kline (D-37). So this year, legislators are navigating a new tack. Senator Rosa Franklin, a retired nurse representing the 29th District around south Tacoma, has introduced SB 5516. A person who witnesses an overdose and calls for help “shall not be subject to prosecution” for drug possession, the bill says.

“It is not attacking the war on drugs but looking at saving a person’s life,” Franklin says. An identical bill, HB 1615, has been introduced in the state house and is scheduled for a hearing next Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. Meanwhile, representative Roger Goodman (D-45) has introduced yet another measure, HB 1796, that would allow medics to carry a drug called naloxone, which reverses opiate overdoses. Currently, naloxone is only available by prescription.