Friends don’t call 911 for overdoses for a reason — NC law is behind, advocates say
A coalition of advocates, including parents who have lost children to overdose deaths, is calling on legislators to expand North Carolina’s Good Samaritan Law.
One key change they want is for fentanyl — the biggest driver of fatal overdoses — to be listed alongside drugs like cocaine and heroin.
These advocates say North Carolina’s law is behind most of the rest of the country when it comes to saving lives claimed by drug overdoses. Namely, due to the recent re-classification of fentanyl possession as a felony, it is not covered under the state’s Good Samaritan Law.
Expand Good Sam NC, the coalition advocating for change, argues that those who use drugs are terrified to call 911 to report an overdose because of loopholes in the law that can lead to legal repercussions and arrest.
Fentanyl was recently re-classified as a felony drug in the state, meaning the law does not protect those who overdose on it.
If bystanders — those who witness someone overdosing on fentanyl — are themselves in possession of the drug, they do not automatically have legal protections. A person who calls for help about their own overdose on fentanyl can also be prosecuted.
“People do not want to call 911,” said Lauren Kestner, Queen City Harm Reduction’s associate director.
“So fentanyl expansion is not only required because (our law) was the weakest across the U.S., but also because now fentanyl is pretty much dominating the drug supply.”
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officials previously told The Charlotte Observer that fentanyl is the most common drug locally because it is frequently laced in other substances.
The number of fentanyl-related overdose deaths in North Carolina has steadily increased each year since 2016 when deaths rose from 442 to 3,163 in 2021, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.
In 2021 in North Carolina, dying of an overdose was nearly two times more common than dying in a car accident. That’s even when traffic deaths in the state were at an all time 20-year high according to U.S. News and World Report.
There were 3,304 overdose-related deaths in 2021 — the overwhelming majority involved fentanyl — and 1,755 traffic deaths.
Queen City Harm Reduction, one of the organizations involved with the coalition, has seen the impacts on the Charlotte community.
The goal of QC Harm Reduction is to provide safe supplies to those who use drugs. Doing this helps to prevent the spread of HIV, Hepatitis, and other infections. In addition to providing safer use supplies, the nonprofit offers training and educational information to participants in their program.
Lately, that training has been about what to do if you’re afraid to call 911.
Kestner tells program members to administer Naloxone overdose reversal medication, if they have any, and then to call 911 but leave the area while keeping an eye on the scene to the best of their ability. One reason, Kestner said, that the person should stay if possible is because their friend who overdosed could refuse medical treatment from first responders and overdose again.
QC Harm Reduction outreach worker Beth Ockerbloom became involved with harm reduction after someone she knew overdosed. In addition to her work with the organization, she is passionate about expanding the law.
“When Good Samaritan does not protect you from criminal charges with fentanyl, that reduces the likelihood that someone is going to call 911,” Ockerbloom said.
Anna Stein works with the North Carolina Division of Public Health as a legal advisor. She spearheaded some work to improve the law in 2021, but it didn’t pass. She is hopeful that it will pass in the upcoming legislative session.
When Stein first began working on ideas for expansions to Good Samaritan, she researched the law in every other state that had one. Out of 40 states, she found that North Carolina has one of the weakest iterations of the law.
“I think what happened is that we were one of the first states to pass a Good Samaritan Law, we passed it back in 2013,” Stein said. “What happens when you’re the first state to do something is that oftentimes you don’t get it right.”
Other southern states, including Tennessee, Georgia and Kentucky, all have better laws than North Carolina, she said.
Without changing the law, it is almost pointless to educate on the current Good Samaritan protections in the state. And, without education, Stein said the law doesn’t do much good.
“Because there’s so little protection guaranteed in our law that ... there’s almost nothing you can say about it,” Stein said. “We really need to be able to assure people that they will get protection and ... it needs to be simple, the messaging in what people are protected from.”
Currently the law is confusing and has a lot of caveats — namely it protects from prosecution but not arrest and provides immunity, essentially, for misdemeanor possession but not felony possession.
The state’s Good Samaritan Law was first passed in 2013, and expanded in 2018. Stein says she is hopeful the law will expand again due to pressure on law makers from concerned parents.
‘He would be here today’
Two mothers from Chatham County joined the fight to expand the law after their teenage sons, who were best friends, died within five weeks of each other at the same location as a result of drug and alcohol poisoning. With each of them, their friends knew what was happening but were afraid to call 911, they said.
Mary O’Donnell’s son Sean, 19, died on June 4, 2017 after passing out from drinking too much alcohol at a local quarry. He was partying with his friends in what he called a “last hurrah” before he planned on leaving for Montana to become a hunting guide.
“The other kids once Sean drank too much, and he passed out. They weren’t really sure what to do. They didn’t want to get him in trouble, didn’t want to get themselves in trouble and so they left him passed out by the quarry.”
Sean fell in and drowned and Boone, 18, who had left the party earlier that evening, was devastated.
Julie Cummins, Boone’s mother, said he died approximately five weeks later at the quarry. He had started using Xanax and drinking after Sean’s death and he wanted to visit the quarry to have a memorial for Sean before he went to rehab the next day. His friends dropped him off and no one else came that night to participate.
He took too many Xanax and began to slur his words and go downhill. Cummins said he messaged and called friends to pick him up, but they were afraid to sneak out again and get him and themselves in trouble.
His parents and police found that he fell in and drowned in the quarry at nearly the exact same place Sean had died.
Their mothers say they might still be alive if more people knew about the Good Samaritan Law, and if it was expanded so that more education could be provided.
Just four weeks after their deaths, Cummins and O’Donnell became involved in educating about the law, and advocating for changes. They began visiting high schools, including their sons’, and were part of the reason why the law was expanded in 2018. Now, they are hopeful legislators will adopt more expansions in their next session.
“We feel like it has to pass, we feel like there’s no room to think that it won’t,” Cummins said. “Mary and I are in a grief group and it is incredible how often you hear about other lives lost where somebody was at the scene, or somebody left the scene, and didn’t make the call.”
Everyone The Charlotte Observer spoke with for this story agreed that change will have to be bipartisan, and most said they do expect bipartisan support.
Some of the organizations involved include Community Education Group, the NC Council of Churches, the NC Survivors Union, Ekim for Change, and Queen City Harm Reduction, Cummins said.
O’Donnell said if some of the teens who were at the party where Sean died knew about the law, he would still be alive today.
“If they understood the Good Sam law, he would be here today. I really believe that,” O’Donnell said. “And just in terms of expanding the law, we are so committed to working through this to get this on the agenda and everything. I really hope it does pass this time, because it’s been a long time coming.”
This story was originally published December 12, 2022 at 6:30 AM with the headline "Friends don’t call 911 for overdoses for a reason — NC law is behind, advocates say."
