Advocates Say Good Samaritan Compromise Won't Stop People From Dying

By Dan Neumann, Maine Beacon:

Advocates in Maine’s recovery community, many of whom have lost friends and loved ones to overdoses, say a compromise bill backed by Gov. Janet Mills to strengthen Maine’s “Good Samaritan” law doesn’t address the heart of the issue — that people at the scene of our overdose are scared to call 911 for fear of arrest.

“I think that everybody’s worried about elections. I think it’s a cop out,” said Courtney Allen, policy director for the Maine Recovery Advocacy Project. “This is a moral issue. I’m not willing to wait through election season or for any other time because people are dying today.”

Last week, the legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee voted in favor of a bill that would narrowly expand Maine’s “Good Samaritan” law, which was passed in 2019.

The current law is fatally flawed, advocates say, because it only offers immunity to the person calling for help for a narrow set of criminal offenses. That limited protection for responders has resulted in avoidable deaths, they say.

LD 1862, a bill introduced by Sen. Chloe Maxmin (D-Lincoln County) this session, seeks to rectify the confusion and fear that prevents people from calling for help. She cites a report by Maine Access Points that found that 90% of people who use naloxone to reverse a drug overdose don’t call 911.

Maxmin’s bill would change the existing law so that any person at the scene of an overdose who makes a good faith effort to call for assistance is protected from arrest or prosecution. The bill would include immunity for bail and probation violations, while exempting sex crimes, crimes involving children, and arson, among others.

The Mills administration opposed Maxmin’s bill and offered their own amended version. The administration’s proposal keeps the current law but expands protections to only those “rendering aid.”

The committee voted 7-6 on March 4 to send Mills’ version of the bill to the full legislature for a floor vote. Democratic Sens. Susan Deschambault and Mark Lawrence, both representing York, joined Republicans to vote for Mills’ report.

“I have no idea what ‘rendering aid’ means,” Maxmin said. “Does that mean providing emotional support? Does it mean going and getting a cell phone? Nobody knows.”

She added, “The governor’s plan doesn’t actually solve the problem, which are the crimes that are covered by the law. The recovery community is very clear about that reality.”

Maxmin said despite the committee vote, she will push for the full legislature to consider the committee’s minority report in favor of her version of the bill.

“The arguments didn’t make sense to me from the committee about why they went with the governor’s report, because it was directly at odds with the data and the on-the-ground lived experience that people shared during the public hearing,” she said. “In Maine, the recovery community is brilliant, and they’re organized and they are passionate and they are grieving and they know what needs to be done. It will be a profound tragedy if the legislature does not listen to them.”

Allen said the bill as originally drafted is necessary to combat what she describes as a surge of preventable overdose deaths. A record number of people lost their lives in 2021 due to the overdose crisis. That number reached 636 deaths last year; twelve a week, or nearly two people a day.

Allen personally lost a mentor and adopted father who died of an accidental overdose last year.

“It just feels like an apocalypse out here and nobody is listening,” she said.

Organizers in Maine’s recovery community have united behind Maxmin’s bill as a top priority this session. They continue to raise awareness about the climbing number of overdose deaths in Maine.

On March 6, organizers erected 636 crosses and other grave markers in Capitol Park outside the Maine State House to mark Black Balloon Day, an annual event dedicated to recognizing and celebrating those who have lost their lives to substance overdoses.

The crosses were removed by Capitol Police despite the fact that organizers filed a permit weeks in advance that specified their plans to erect markers. Allen said Capitol Police Chief Matthew Clancy apologized and said there was a miscommunication with his officers. He did not immediately respond to Beacon‘s request for comment.

“Those are markers for our family members,” Allen said. “I can’t even find the words. One of those markers represented my father. It’s like they desecrated my father’s grave. If it was any other kind of memorial, do you think they would ever have the audacity to remove it?”

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