The Wyoming State Legislature is determining the fate of a bill that would give protection to persons either reporting a drug overdose or suffering from one.
“House Bill No. 62: Immunity for Drug Overdose Reporting” passed the House on its third reading with 50 votes for, 8 votes against and 2 excused votes for representatives that were not present at the time of voting. Because the bill passed the House, it is now on to a joint committee in the Senate to make a decision.
“It was not as controversial as I was expecting in getting through the House, hopefully the Senate is as agreeable,” Representative and co-sponsor of the bill Dan Zwonitzer said.
According to the bill, if passed, it would give immunity from criminal prosecution when reporting a drug overdose or seeking medical assistance for a drug overdose, provided that the person meets the other requirements outlined by the bill.
The ultimate goal of the bill is to provide these afflicted persons with an opportunity to seek out medical care without other variables influencing their need for help, like criminal prosecution.
“If this helps someone make that important call to first responders, without fear of prosecution, then it could well save lives,” Rep. Charles Pelkey, senate minority WHIP and sponsor of the bill, said. “We’ve had hundreds of opioid deaths in this state over the last decade. It is my hope that this will do something to fix that.”
Zwonitzer said the goal is, “to keep people alive if they have an opioid or heroin overdose, and hopefully help them get treatment for their addictions.”
The bill passed through the House with little opposition and garnered the support of many representatives in the House, which can be attributed to some wording in the bill.
“I did my best to keep the focus of the bill narrow,” Pelkey said. “It doesn’t grant immunity for felony offenses like distribution, but it does remove the fear of a possession or use charge when someone reports his own or someone else’s overdose.”
Pelkey said narrowing down the focus of the bill has allowed it to gain support from both the law enforcement and the medical communities.
One such narrow qualification is that the person can avoid prosecution so long as, “The person cooperates with a responding law enforcement officer, emergency medical service provider or medical care provider,” according to the bill.
This idea of cooperation is reiterated throughout this section of the bill, outlining how a person should act when reporting something of this variety.
The bill, if passed, would go into effect July 1 of this year.
