Lawmaker wants people to call 911 for drug ODs

Mar, 1, 2009

MELISSA SANTOS; melissa.santos@thenewstribune.com

Danielle McCarthy might have survived an Ecstasy overdose two years ago, if only her friends had called 911 for help.

The 16-year-old Puyallup girl died on New Year�s Day 2007 after attending parties in Edmonds and Seattle. She showed signs of overdosing for nearly eight hours, but no one with her called for medical aid.

A bill under consideration in the state Legislature aims to get people to report overdoses before they turn fatal.

And Danielle�s father, Pat McCarthy, opposes it.

Senate Bill 5516 would forgo charging people with drug possession if they were caught because they sought help for an overdose. The bill passed out of committee Feb. 19 and soon could be scheduled for a floor vote.

Bill sponsor Sen. Rosa Franklin, D-Tacoma, said she doesn�t want fear of drug possession charges to stop people from calling 911 when someone overdoses.

�My interest in this bill is actually about saving lives,� Franklin said last week.

A bill similar to Franklin�s, Substitute House Bill 1796, is also moving through the Capitol.

�TICKET TO FREEDOM�

Pat McCarthy said the bills would create a loophole for people to get away with drug offenses.

�As long as you call 911, it�s your ticket to freedom,� McCarthy said. �Even if they call after someone�s already dead, it seems to give immunity.�

The bills wouldn�t protect people who distribute drugs or are accused of controlled substance homicide, the legal term for providing drugs that lead to a fatal overdose.

That was the charge brought against the two people who provided Ecstasy to Danielle McCarthy. One, David Morris, pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to nearly five years in prison. The other, Donalydia Huertas, a former classmate of Danielle�s at Rogers High School, was convicted of second-degree manslaughter and received two years of juvenile detention.

At least three other people were with Danielle while she was dying, court records say, and none made the phone call that could have saved her life.

According to court records, Danielle vomited repeatedly and drifted in and out of consciousness for several hours. When her companions couldn�t awaken her around 6:30 a.m. on New Year�s Day, they placed her in a warm bath for about 15 minutes and researched �Ecstasy overdose� on the Internet, the records state.

DISCOURAGED FROM CALLING 911

Morris called his mother, a registered nurse, and she told him to call 911, the documents say, but the host of the party discouraged him from calling because the host had a warrant out for his arrest.

Morris and Huertas drove Danielle to an Edmonds hospital around 9:45 a.m., but she was already dead.

�They could have called,� Franklin said.

The Tacoma lawmaker, who has served nearly two decades, said Danielle�s case was one of many that prompted her to introduce the legislation.

According to state statistics, 5.6 Washington residents per 100,000 died from drug use in 1992; by 2003 that number had risen to 9.9 deaths per 100,000.

But Pat McCarthy said he doesn�t think eliminating the threat of drug possession charges would have prompted any of Danielle�s friends to call 911.

�People out there, if they�re going to call, they will,� he said. �It�s about compassion. There�s nothing that could ever happen to you from calling that compares to somebody dying.�

Prosecutors share McCarthy�s concerns that Franklin�s bill could complicate criminal trials without changing people�s behavior, said Tom McBride, executive director of the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys.

The bill could create an argument for suppression of evidence in a variety of drug cases, McBride said.

�There�s a grant of immunity from prosecution in this bill,� McBride said at the bill�s hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Feb. 11. �You can�t take that back.�

Also, defendants occasionally are tried for drug delivery, but a jury ends up convicting them on a lesser charge of drug possession, McBride said. The law doesn�t address whether the reduced charge would stand if a 911 call was made before an arrest, he said.

HOLD THEM RESPONSIBLE

Pat McCarthy said he thinks legislators should take the opposite approach of what is contained in Franklin�s bill: They should make it a crime for people to fail to summon aid for someone who is overdosing.

That�s a better strategy than eliminating the threat of a drug charge for people who do decide to call, he said.

�You�ll probably see a reduction in overdose deaths if people know they are going to be held responsible for their actions,� McCarthy said.

He suggested that current failure-to-summon-assistance laws could be used for that purpose, but McBride said it would be hard to apply those statutes to drug overdoses.

Franklin said she sees punishing people who don�t call 911 as a negative way to approach the problem. She said she�s trying to use a carrot rather than a stick.

�I think it would push people away so they don�t call,� Franklin said. �It�s just not going about it the right way.�

Melissa Santos: 253-552-7058