Governor signs bill intended to decrease overdose deaths

Gov. David Ige on Tuesday approved a bill designed to help reduce the number of drug- and alcohol-related deaths in Hawaii by encouraging bystanders to call for help when they witness an overdose.

Senate Bill 982, or the "Good Samaritan" bill, offers limited legal immunity for people who seek medical assistance for someone suffering from a drug or alcohol overdose.

Under the new law, people who call for help during an overdose will not be prosecuted for possession of drugs or drug paraphernalia or for violation of probation or parole in connection with the incident.

By passing the bill, the state is "trying to find a way to encourage people to call 911 when they see someone that they are close to who may be in trouble with alcohol or drug overdoses," Ige said at a Tuesday bill-signing ceremony for the measure.

The most common reason people give for failing to call for help is they are worried about police involvement, he said. "We all know that getting treatment as quickly as possible is most important in those instances," Ige said.

Fatal drug poisonings are increasing in Hawaii, and death certificate records show drug poisonings are now the leading cause of fatal injuries, surpassing both motor vehicle deaths and falls.

According to statistics provided by the state Department of Health, 155 people in Hawaii died last year from drug overdoses, which was more than double the number of overdose deaths 15 years ago. Daniel Gala­nis, epidemiologist in the department’s Injury Prevention and Control Section, said opi­oid pain relievers such as Vico­din, Oxy­Con­tin and morphine contributed to about a third of the deaths last year.

From 2010 to 2014, 37 percent of overdose deaths involved illegal drugs, usually meth­am­pheta­mine, Gala­nis said.

Heather Lusk, executive director of The CHOW Project outreach program to prevent HIV infection and AIDS, said outreach workers are seeing people "bridge" from prescription drugs to illegal drugs such as heroin.

The CHOW Project operates the needle exchange program to try to reduce infections, and during the past year exchanged a million dirty syringes for clean ones. That was a record number for the program, she said.

"It really shows you that, unfortunately, the group of folks using these drugs has really grown, which is why we’re seeing more overdoses," Lusk said. "We’re seeing newer folks come into the program that we never saw before."

Lusk said she hopes the immunity law will spark a community discussion about drug overdoses, and said advocates will press for another bill next year to relax restrictions on the use of a drug called Naloxone that can be used to reverse the effects of opi­oids. Making Naloxone more readily available to the public can save people who are overdosing, she said.

Therese Argoud, manager of the Health Department’s Injury and Control Prevention Section, said 24 other states already have a limited-immunity bill, and "we know that this works from the experience of other states."

The new law took effect Tuesday when Ige signed the bill.