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Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Olympia Party Lines

Posted by Dominic Holden on Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 4:22 PM

If someone is doing lines at a party and overdoses—falls on the floor and turns blue—Republicans in the house public safety committee don't want to increase the chances that some else will call medics for help. The committee just voted down party lines (all three Republicans opposing and five Democrats supporting) for a bill that would provide legal immunity to someone who calls 911 to save an overdosing person's life. Sometimes, when drugs are involved, people don't call for help when they should. A similar bill passed out of a state senate committee yesterday.

Chances that the bills—which have been introduced but failed the past four sessions—passing into law look very good this year. "I think there is a sense of urgency because Washington has a spiking rate of overdose deaths," says Shankar Narayan, legislative director for the ACLU of Washington, which has been pushing the bills. "I think it is being driven home that there is a strong probability that this will save lives."

Comments (8) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

Do as they say.

Not as they do.

aka Hypocrisy (tm)

Posted by Will in Seattle on February 18, 2009 at 4:31 PM

You would think the politicians would support this as they would now have immunity when they turn up in a hotel with a O.D.'d prostitute.

Posted by greenfrog on February 18, 2009 at 4:49 PM

You deserve an award for the titles of your stories and posts alone, Dominic. Not to mention the great reporting!

Posted by to wit on February 18, 2009 at 5:51 PM

May all Republicans fry in hell for all of eternity, as they surely deserve!

Posted by wow on February 18, 2009 at 11:52 PM

I'm curious what the exceptions to this rule would be. I mean, I think it sounds like a good idea, but I assume they are only applying it to cases where the overdosing person took the drugs voluntarily, right? What if I give drugs to a child who overdoses on them and then I call 911, am I immune from prosecution?

Posted by Handle on February 19, 2009 at 1:52 AM

Also, do you know how stupid this comment set up is? Do you know how many times I've typed a comment, clicked on preview, gone to a diferent window while it slowly loads, and then forgotten to finally hit post? And then if you click on comments from another thread it opens in this same popup window and you lose the previous comment you were typing. There's really no reason to have two steps like that.

Posted by Handle on February 19, 2009 at 1:53 AM

Republican's claims to being "pro-life" are, once again, proved to be false.

Posted by Vince on February 19, 2009 at 6:46 AM

@5 my understanding is that it's not about the person calling being immune, it's about the OD'd person being immune from being arrested and prosecuted for possession of illegal drugs.

Posted by k. on February 19, 2009 at 1:05 PM