DN Editorial: A good call

WE HAVEN'T yet found a reliable way to stop people from using illegal drugs. But we can, under some circumstances, stop them from dying.

That's the purpose of legislation pending in Harrisburg that would provide immunity, under certain circumstances, to witnesses to an overdose who call police. Most individuals who succumb to drug overdoses reportedly aren't alone when they lose consciousness, but their companions fail to call for help for fear of being arrested themselves.

This bill would remove the threat of prosecution - if the witnesses stay with the person in trouble until help arrives and they aren't drug dealers.

The legislation couldn't come at a more propitious time.

Overdose deaths have become epidemic, increasing more than 100 percent between 1999 and 2010, mostly because of the abuse of prescription painkillers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2010, overdoses took more lives in the United States than car crashes - 38,329 to be exact. Most of those deaths were accidental.

Then there's the fact that a deadly form of heroin is filling the morgues in western Pennsylvania.

During one week in January, 22 drug users died in that part of the state from heroin laced with fentanyl, a painkiller and anesthetic that's far more potent than morphine. The fentanyl-heroin combination is not a new scourge; it killed more than 200 people in Pennsylvania in 2006 before temporarily disappearing from the street.

The Good Samaritan drug overdose bill that was introduced by GOP Sen. Dominic Pileggi, of Chester and Delaware counties, passed 50-0 in the Senate in December - indicative of the powerful sentiment for such legislation, even in a conservative, moralistic state like Pennsylvania.

Pileggi's bill was sent to the House, where a similar bill by state Rep. Ron Miller, a Republican of York County, is also pending. Miller's bill was recently amended to apply to every witness who notifies authorities of an overdose, even if it's more than one person who calls. Miller said his colleagues have been supportive and that the bill is expected to be voted out of the judiciary committee at any time.

Thirteen other states, including New York, New Jersey and Delaware, have already passed so-called Good Samaritan laws similar to the one under consideration in Pennsylvania.

Pileggi and Miller separately said they were inspired to introduce the legislation by appeals from constituents whose loved ones died of overdoses while in the presence of other people who failed to get help. We applaud their compassion and encourage their colleagues in Harrisburg to pass the legislation.

While opponents may argue that overdoses are self-inflicted, addicts should no more be denied a chance to survive than tobacco smokers who get lung cancer. Addiction isn't a character flaw or a moral lapse; it's a disease as deadly and resistant to cure as cancer.

We may not have yet found a reliable way to stop people from using illegal drugs. But we can - and very well should - stop them from dying. This legislation will help.