BENTON HARBOR (WKZO-AM) — Heroin mixed with a powerful painkiller caused several overdose deaths in the Kalamazoo area last month. Now, the dangerous mix has appeared in Berrien County, where it has resulted in a spike in overdoses there too.
Berrien County Sheriff’s Capt. Robert Boyce said heroin-laced with Fentanyl is dangerous because the prescription drug is 80 to 100 times more potent than morphine, and that makes things more dangerous for addicts, especially if they don’t know it’s been added to the drug.
Boyce said, since there’s no way to be sure, addicts should be sure there’s someone around then they use. That way if they overdose, that second person can call for help.
It may be connected or it may be serendipity, but new legislation from state Rep. Al Pscholka, R-Stevensville, would expand and fix the good samaritan law he sponsored last year. That legislation created an exemption from criminal prosecution for anyone under 21 who reports someone having a controlled substance overdose.
The plan was inspired by the case of a Watervliet teen who died from an overdose when no one reported he was in trouble.
Pscholka said it was a mistake to put an age limit on the exemption. He says when they dug into the statistics, they found that people of all ages are overdosing, particularly adults from 50 to 70 years old.
Pscholka says the immunity is conditional. It has to be in reaction to a medical emergency and not criminal activity. He says it would not apply to someone determined to be a drug dealer.
The good samaritan expansion has already attracted 50 co-sponsors in the House. It was introduced this week.
