On Monday, January 14th, over 100 Santa Clarita residents marched from the City Council Chambers to the Valencia Town Center in the effort to raise awareness of the recently enacted, 911 Good Samaritan Act.
The new law gives protection from prosecution to individuals that call 911 to save a life at a location in which drugs are present on the scene.
Typically, a drug charge can carry with it a host of related offenses and penalties, often including jail time. Because of the seriousness of the offense, individuals at the scene of an overdose (whether involved or not) will likely opt to pick up their paraphernalia and take off, rather than call for help and risk being arrested themselves.
This chain of events often ends up resulting in the death of the person overdosing, when it doesn’t necessarily have to.
Thanks to the 911 Good Samaritan Act, those who find themselves at the scene of an overdose where drugs are present no longer need to worry about being arrested themselves, provided they call 911 in order to help the victim.
The march was planned and staged to raise awareness about the new law, reaching out to the community and hopefully saving future lives. All levels of the community were involved in the march including Mayor Bob Kellar. According to Mayor Kellar: “We need to have a big toolbox…” and, “there is no single answer
With the newly passed law and a community willing to rally behind it in order to raise awareness, one can only hope that the combination of the two will help save lives and limit the potential damage done by drugs in the community.
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