More than 700 people died of drug overdoses in Washington state in 2006, up from a little over 400 in 1999. In an effort to blunt that trend, state Rep. Roger Goodman (D-Kirkland) has introduced HB 1796 [8], which would provide limited immunity from prosecution for drug possession for people seeking assistance for friends or relatives suffering from a drug overdose. At present, New Mexico is the only state to have passed such a "Good Samaritan" law.
The bill would prevent Good Samaritans from being prosecuted for drug possession, but not drug manufacture or distribution offenses. The bill also provides the same immunities for drug overdose victims. A second section of the bill legalizes the use of the opioid antagonist naloxone to treat overdoses.
Before becoming an elected official, Goodman earned an impressive reputation in the drug law reform community and the legal community as head of the King County Bar Association Drug Policy Project [9]. Now, he has moved from advocating change to legislating change.
The bill was introduced January 29 and passed the House Committee on Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness on February 18 in amended version. On Thursday, it was returned to the Rules Committee for a second reading.
Update: HB 1796, and its companion bill sponsored by Sen. Rosa Franklin, SB 5516, did not come up for a vote before Thursday's cutoff [10].