Two bills in the legislature—one in the house and one in the senate—aimed at encouraging people to report drug overdoses are trying to beat the buzzer. The legislature must pass one of the bills by Thursday at 5:00 p.m. for the legislation to stay alive this session. If passed, the proposal would reduce the chances of seeing more stories like this one:
The Army announced this morning that charges have been filed against a soldier in connection with the death last month of a 16-year-old girl who died in a Fort Lewis barracks.
Pvt. Timothy E. Bennitt, 19, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of Leah King. He was also charged with wrongful use and distribution of controlled substances and conspiracy to use controlled substances. […]
According to Army, King died after taking Alprazolam, an anti-depression drug marketed as Xanax, and Oxymorphone. Investigators believe the pills were crushed and inhaled in powder form, the Army said.
King, 16, was found dead at 3:30 a.m. Feb. 15 inside a barracks at Fort Lewis, where she had gone to see her soldier boyfried. Her 16-year-old friend was found unconscious and spent four days at Madigan Army Medical Center before being released to her mother.
To be clear, the bills in the legislature wouldn’t have prevented this death; Army bases aren’t subject to state law. But fatal drug overdoses have skyrocketed in Washington in recent years (killing 403 people in 1999 and climbing to 707 people in 2006), and the bills would reduce scenarios like this one—situations where a call to 911 could have saved someone’s life, but, for whatever reason, nobody made that call. Even if someone is afraid of getting busted for drugs, the responsibility is always on the person who sees an overdose to report it—regardless of the risk of penalties. Nobody should just watch a person stop breathing and walk away. But the fact is, people do. People afraid of going to jail ditch an overdosing friend or take the chance that the person will recover. Sometimes they get caught anyway. But it would be better if—instead of taking the risk, instead of being afraid of going to jail for years for drug-law violations—people knew that they were immune from prosecution so they would do the right thing: call 911. It means we send a slightly mixed signal that drugs aren’t always illegal—a bitter pill for some folks to swallow—but if it means saving lives, it’s worth it.
Xanax isn’t an antidepressant. It’s an anti-anxiety medication, similar to Valium or Klonopin.
Oh, and whoever gave the kid oxymorphone is guilty of manslaughter at the least. That’s some powerful shit.
How do you guys get away with reprinting, and even rewriting, a Seattle Times story, without giving them credit (an anon link hardly counts)…
I’m hopeful, both bills will pass.
@3 Um, fcuk plagiarism and copyright laws. Free the knowledge. If that article really was something groundbreaking, the author wouldn’t have to worry about it getting used by others.
Drug deaths are increasing for one reason… here are King County statistics:
Cocaine deaths
1999: 76
2007: 86
Alcohol deaths
1999: 70
2007: 70
Heroin deaths
1999: 117
2007: 65
Benzodiazepene deaths
1999: 16
2007: 43
Methamphetamine deaths
1999: 13
2007: 18
MDMA (Ecstasy) deaths
1999: 1
2007: 3
Marijuana deaths
1999: 0
2007: 0
Prescription muscle relaxant deaths
1999: 0
2007: 11
Prescription benzodiazepine deaths (almost always mixed with alcohol or another drug)
1999: 16
2007: 43
Prescription opiate deaths
1999: 29
2007: 151
Meanwhile, here are the King County drug seizures by drug class in 2007:
Cocaine (including crack cocaine): 41.6%
Marijuana: 18.7%
Methamphetamine: 16.3%
Prescription opiates: 7.5%
MDMA (Ecstasy): 6.2%
Heroin: 4.7%
Prescription benzos: 1.7%
Other: 3.3%
http://www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices…
no fort lewis, no dead girl.
Zero deaths by marijuana. That’s proof that our war on drugs is a miraculous success!!! Yay!!!
How about overdosing people not calling 911 themselves or asking for help because they don’t want to go to jail for taking drugs? Or friends not calling for help because they don’t want their sick friend to go to jail? This story is way too one-sided.
Xanax gets into the system blindingly fast. If you swallow it, it starts to work in only a few minutes. I can’t imagine snorting the stuff. And, considering that it makes you dopey and numb, combine that with something that’s a ton more powerful than morpheine – also snorted – and, I bet she just stopped breathing in just a few moments.
Ugh. I’ve seen near overdoses on shit like this, and unless you start narcan immediately, you’re fucked.
The nice thing about living in a region with multiple port cities is there will always be drug overdoses.
Can we talk about the utter stupidity of grinding up and snorting Xanax?
army bases aren’t subject to state law?
@13 – no.
They are subject to military law and at most federal law, in all cases other than rape, murder, and something else I somehow spaced.
But not state law.
Please note a lot of our state is actually federal land.