Bill would provide immunity to good Samaritans in overdose cases

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A state Senator is seeking to grant legal immunity to “a new type of good Samaritan:” someone who, despite illegally using drugs or alcohol, takes another person to an emergency room to prevent an overdose.

State Sen. John Lehman, D-Racine, told members of the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Labor on Tuesday that Senate Bill 215 is meant to be a common-sense measure that prevents fear of arrest from stopping drug and alcohol abusers from seeking medical assistance for friends and acquaintances. To that end, the proposal would provide immunity under the law only to those who are suspected of illegally using or possessing drugs or alcohol.

Lehman said the bill mainly comes in response to a sharp increase in heroin overdoses in the state in recent years. From 2005 to 2012, the number of Wisconsin counties submitting heroin specimens to the state’s Crime Lab has gone from 22 to 56, according to a news release from the state Department of Justice, which announced a campaign in September to fight heroin abuse.

But, Lehman said, users or possessors of other substances, including underage drinkers, would also receive legal immunity under Senate Bill 215.

“We are treading a very fine line here,” he said. “We are trying to allow someone to be a good Samaritan.”

The three Republican members of the Senate committee — state Sens. Paul Farrow, R-Pewaukee, Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, and Leah Vukmir, R-Wauwatosa — questioned the wisdom of extending immunity to abusers of alcohol, saying such a change could encourage underage drinking. Lehman said he would consider amending the bill to remove the language concerning alcohol, although he wanted first to learn if other states make such an exception.

Grothman, chairman of the Senate Judiciary and Labor Committee, said he thinks the bill would have a better chance of being passed if it were more narrowly tailored.

“I’m under the impression the major concern here was heroin,” he said. “I’m amazed at the number of people who are dying of heroin overdoses. It just stuns me.”

Although seeking to extend immunity in the interest of saving lives, Lehman said he wants to avoid giving free rein to all sorts of criminal activity involving alcohol and drugs. Senate Bill 215, he said, therefore would still allow the police to arrest someone who was driving under the influence of alcohol while taking a friend to the hospital.

The proposal, he noted, also contains a provision that would let law-enforcement officials prevent someone who poses a threat to himself or others from leaving a hospital or clinic site. Likewise, the bill would allow the police to arrest someone who is wanted on suspicion of committing a previous crime regardless of whether the person was apprehended in an emergency room or at another medical site.

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