The Akron Legal News

Immunity for helping someone with a drug-related medical emergency sought

TIFFANY L. PARKS
Special to the Legal News
Published: August 17, 2015

State Reps. Denise Driehaus and Robert Sprague have revamped a bipartisan proposal that would provide immunity from arrest, prosecution or conviction for an individual who seeks or obtains personal medical assistance or help for another person who is experiencing a medical emergency as a result of ingesting drugs.

House Bill 249 also would not permit a court to consider drug treatment for the individual or use an applicable situation as a mitigating factor in supervised release sanctioning.

Driehaus, D-Cincinnati, and Sprague, R-Findlay, have stumped for HB 249 before the House Judiciary Committee. In the last General Assembly, the pair pushed for the passage of a similar measure, House Bill 363.

HB 363 stalled after three committee hearings.

HB 249 would extend immunity from arrest and prosecution for a minor drug possession offense to a person who, in good faith, seeks medical assistance for another person who is experiencing a medical emergency as a result of ingesting drugs if the evidence of the person’s violation of the drug possession statute resulted from the individual seeking the medical assistance.

The bill would also provide immunity to the person for whom the medical assistance is sought if the evidence of the violation comes from seeking medical assistance.

If either individual is under a community control or post-release control sanction, the proposed immunity would not apply to that person.

HB 249 offers similar immunity to a person who seeks medical assistance for himself or herself under the same circumstances.

“Opioid addiction isn’t confined to just rural counties or urban centers, but affects every community across the state,” Driehaus said, adding that drug overdose has been the greatest cause of accidental death in Ohio since 2007.

“On average, we have nearly six people dying a day from a drug overdose, with three-fourths of those deaths being caused by opioids. We need to implement a multi-pronged strategy to combat the rising number of overdoses that are claiming the lives of our neighbors and loved ones. The situation grows increasingly grimmer as (the) death tolls rise.”

In 2013, heroin surpassed prescription drugs as the leading cause of accidental death, doubling from 500 deaths per year to nearly 1,000.

Prescription drug overdoses accounted for roughly 750 deaths that same year.

“The Ohioans overdosing aren’t limited to one demographic or socioeconomic status,” Driehaus said. “Our state’s growing opioid addiction issue is negatively impacting every community throughout Ohio; devastating families, individuals and society.”

In stressing the importance of offering immunity in overdose situations, Driehaus said a recent survey of opioid users in Ohio indicated that less than 60 percent of witnesses to a drug overdose called 911.

The large majority of those surveyed, 94 percent, said they would be more likely to call for medical assistance if immunity provisions were enacted.

Driehaus said the bill is rooted in giving people who are suffering from an addiction another shot at life and recovery.

HB 249 is similar to legislation that has been enacted in the nation’s capital and 14 other states.

With regard to penalties for a community control or post-release control violation, the bill gives the court directions for handling such offenders.

A bill summary says the court must first consider ordering the person’s participation in a drug treatment program or mitigating the penalty specified in the applicable statute.

After that, the court may either order the person’s participation in a drug treatment program or impose the penalty with the mitigating factor.

Under the bill, the court may not order the imprisonment of a person who is convicted of a felony violation of a community control sanction as a result of acting under the bill’s provisions unless the offender had continued using illegal drugs after a reasonable period of court-ordered participation in a drug treatment program or imprisonment would be consistent with the purposes and principles of sentencing.

HB 249 would not provide immunity from arrest and prosecution to a person who seeks medical help, or for whom medical help is sought, if the person is under a community or post-release control sanction.

However, the summary states that if such a person is convicted of violating the conditions of a community or post-release control sanction based on a minor drug possession offense, the court or parole board may consider the offender’s conduct in seeking medical help or in being the person for whom medical help was sought as a mitigating factor before imposing a penalty.

HB 249 is co-sponsored by 11 House members.

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