‘Good Samaritan’ overdose bill doesn’t advance in Legislature
When someone overdosed in Peggy McWilliams’ Oklahoma City home, she didn’t pause to consider the consequences. She called the police. McWilliams, 58, knows that mindset ended up getting her arrested.
“I remember the firemen being in my living room and picking up baggies of meth that were on the table and stuff,” McWilliams said. “I didn’t care — if someone was dying in my house I’m calling 911, whether I go to jail or not.”
Oklahoma remains one of only 13 states that has no form of a Good Samaritan or 911 drug immunity law, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
These laws generally provide immunity from arrest, charge or prosecution for certain drug and paraphernalia offenses when a person who is either experiencing or observing a drug overdose calls 911 for help.
For the past two years, Sen. AJ Griffin, R-Guthrie, has tried to get a Good Samaritan law passed in Oklahoma.
Griffin’s version of the law would provide law enforcement officers with discretion when they arrive at the scene of an overdose.
“We’re not out of the woods,” Griffin said. “We’ve made great strides when it comes to prescription drugs
in particular, but we haven’t solved the problem, so we’re still going to have overdoses. We’re still going to have incidents where an avoidable death can occur, so we still have unfinished business in this area.”
Griffin said she felt if the bill were brought up in committee, it would pass the Senate.
That has been the key problem.
Both this year and last year, Griffin’s bill was assigned to the Senate Judiciary committee.
The chairman of that committee, Sen. Anthony Sykes, R-Moore, wouldn’t hear the bill. Sykes is known for his “tough on crime” approach to criminal justice.
Sykes did not return repeated emails and phone calls to both his office and cellphone. Sykes does not generally return calls to news media.
In recent years, some Republican state lawmakers have embraced a “smart on crime” approach, over the “tough on crime” argument.
For example, Gov. Mary Fallin has focused much of her second term on lowering the state’s incarceration rate — Oklahoma has the second-highest imprisonment rate in the country and has had the highest rate for women in prison per capita since 1991.
Last year, Fallin created a criminal justice task force to make recommendations to the current Legislature, and on Tuesday, praised lawmakers for passing bills recommended by her task force.
“Without jeopardizing public safety, these measures address Oklahoma’s prison population, which is among the highest in the nation,” Fallin said in a news release. “Our criminal justice system will cost our state nearly $2 billion in the coming years if we do not make any changes, which is why these reforms are so critical.”
However, Sykes, a senator since 2006, remains a holdout.
Looking over the bills that Sykes, an attorney, has pushed, his approach to criminal justice and drug addiction is clear.
In 2010, Sykes pushed a bill that would have required the Oklahoma Department of Human Services to drug test people who applied for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, a federal program that provides assistance for needy families.
Despite concerns from lawmakers about what would happen to children of parents denied benefits, the measure was forwarded to the full Senate Appropriations Committee that year.
In 2013, Sykes authored a bill, Senate Bill 942, that would have charged people cooking meth who caused a fire that killed someone to be charged with first-degree murder.
“When our felony murder laws were written, no one had ever anticipated the creation of a drug like meth and the serious threat it poses to individuals and to society,” Sykes said in a 2013 Senate news release. “Updating our laws gives prosecutors the tools they need to ensure dangerous criminals are held fully accountable. That’s the intent of SB 942.”
And this past year, Sykes authored Senate Joint Resolution 31, which resulted in State Question 776 on the ballot, a measure that would have proclaimed that all death penalty laws are in effect and methods of execution can be changed. That measure passed in November, with 66 percent of voters supporting it.
Rep. Bobby Cleveland, R-Slaughterville, said Sykes takes a hard stance on criminal justice. Cleveland said he has had multiple criminal justice reform bills die once sent to the Judiciary committee.
For example, in 2015, Cleveland authored House Bill 1117, which would have allowed people convicted of 85 percent crimes, the state’s most serious crimes, to accumulate credits for good behavior and selfimprovement courses.
This bill would have allowed those offenders to be released when they reach the 85 percent threshold. Currently, offenders serving 85 percent crimes can’t earn credits until they’ve served 85 percent of their sentence.
Cleveland backed the bill, arguing that no research proves a longer lockup deters crime. He wanted inmates to be more motivated to take classes and work on anger and family issues before being released.
To help the bill’s chances, when Cleveland saw Sykes at a legislative breakfast, he mentioned to Sykes that it would be nice to get the bill passed. Cleveland said he knew the bill would eventually make its way to Sykes’ Judiciary committee.
Cleveland said that Sykes smiled, walked away and, about halfway down the hallway said aloud, “I wouldn’t vote on nothing that was soft on crime.”
“Without jeopardizing public safety, these measures address Oklahoma’s prison population, which is among the highest in the nation. Our criminal justice system will cost our state nearly $2 billion in the coming years if we do not make any changes, which is why these reforms are so critical.”
Gov. Mary Fallin, in a news release