Pubdate: Fri, 16 Mar 2001
Source: Isthmus (WI)
Copyright: 2001 Isthmus
Contact:  101 King Street, Madison, WI 53703
Website: http://www.thedailypage.com/
Forum: http://www.thedailypage.com/netforum/isthmus-forum/a.cgi
Author: Bill Lueders
Note: Bill Lueders is news editor of Isthmus.

THE CRIME OF OVERDOSING

Why Some Drug Users Are Afraid To Seek Emergency Help.

A few weeks back I looked out the window of my east-side Madison home and 
saw flashing red lights. Four squad cars and an ambulance had converged in 
front of a neighbor's residence. After a few minutes, the ambulance loaded 
up someone who had difficulty walking and drove off. But the police stayed 
for a long time afterwards.

Was it a beating? A shooting? A knife attack? Obviously, the cops weren't 
there because someone needed medical help but because a crime had been 
committed. Later, I learned these two seemingly dissimilar concepts were 
one and the same: My neighbor had overdosed on heroin, and police were 
investigating.

According to Officer Ben Vanden Belt, spokesperson for the Madison Police 
Department, emergency dispatch received a call about a young man who had 
vomited and was "out of it" after injecting the drug. The caller said 
something about not wanting police, and then apparently thought better of 
having called to begin with and hung up. The call was traced, and police 
and an ambulance responded.

It turns out this is standard practice. "Once we have a suggestion about 
illegal activity or potential illegal activity, we're going to send the 
cops," says Jim Patty, head of the county's emergency dispatch operation. 
Indeed, one thing that triggers such a response is when callers ask that 
police not be involved. "We would probably send the police anyway just 
because of that."

To avoid drawing the fuzz, citizens must be purposely vague ("he's fallen 
and I don't know why"), and even then there's no guarantee police won't get 
involved once drug use is established. Perhaps it makes sense to do like 
the young druggies in the movie "Traffic" and dump the overdose victim at 
the emergency room door--although in the film this backfires when a cop 
nails the getaway car.

Leave aside the folly of the drug war in general. In cases where a person's 
life may be in danger, is it good public policy to treat a call for help as 
a crime in progress?

Jimi Reinke, who works for a local needle exchange program run by the 
Wisconsin AIDS Resource Center, says it's a big problem. "If you do call, 
the cops are going to show up," he says. "And odds are they're going to 
hunt down other people in the house before they take care of the person 
with the overdose." He says some addicts have dumped overdose victims on 
the curb before summoning help.

Police, says Reinke, have to start seeing drug overdoses as "a health 
issue, not a criminal problem." He says he's working with the local group 
Progressive Dane to advance policy initiatives along these lines.

"People will die" as a result of current policies, predicts Terry Fox, who 
works for a second Madison needle exchange program run by the AIDS Network.

"It is a disincentive for people to reach out and get appropriate medical 
attention." Jim Stodola, AIDS Networks' director of services, agrees, 
saying his group would welcome removing the threat of criminal prosecution 
in cases involving medical emergencies.

District Attorney Blanchard is sympathetic but he's not in favor of 
establishing a "blanket policy" that overdose victims will not be charged 
and sees no "empirical evidence of need" to change policy at all. In some 
situations, he says, his office may want to bring charges in order to 
compel court-ordered treatment.

Interestingly, Blanchard is one of many local players who enthusiastically 
back a program called Safe Place for Newborns, through which mothers can 
abandon their newborns at local hospitals without fear of prosecution. Dane 
County launched the program last year, although no local cases have 
demonstrated empirical evidence of its need; the state Legislature is 
considering a bill to make it statewide.

Funny, isn't it, that mothers who might otherwise toss their babies in 
trash bins are seen as more deserving of a break than drug users who might 
otherwise die for want of medical care. But that's the war on drugs for you.
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