Letter from Lubbock

I’m just a plainspoken Colorado criminal defense lawyer, but the way I see it…

A really kind Texas gal wrote to give me one last chance to pay attention to a message she’s been trying to get out that she thinks could potentially save lives.

A message that could save lives is probably the kind of thing I should pay attention to.

It’s a guide to Good Samaritan laws, which exist in every state, but I’d bet a bitcoin buck not that many people know about them, and almost certainly not how they work. Main point is, that if you take the trouble to help someone in an emergency, and something goes wrong, you can’t be sued or jailed for trying to do the right thing.

Claudia Reynolds, outreach coordinator for Stages of Recovery, is particularly interested in how these laws can reduce drug overdose deaths by letting users or their friends and family know they can call for help without fear of legal peril.

She says during the first year of COVID-19, drug overdose deaths rose thirty percent, to more than ninety thousand. Knowledge of Good Sam law safeguards, she says, could have saved fourteen thousand lives.

Fourteen thousand. I apologize for not paying better attention.

The article she says can help us all pay better attention, is here.