Kaine introduces Good Samaritan bill

Back last summer, Sen. Tim Kaine sat in on a training session ‘way down in Southwest Virginia showing people how to administer naloxone, a drug that prevents overdoses.

Earlier this year, he watched the Virginia General Assembly easily pass a bill urged by Attorney General Mark Herring that says when someone administers that drug in good faith to prevent an overdose, he or she shouldn’t be held liable for damages.

So, he figured it might make sense for Congress to do its part to clear the way for people – police, EMTs, friends and families of those struggling with addiction -- to administer the lifesaving drug when they.

He, Sen. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., and Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., introduced legislation to offer the same kind of “Good Samaritan” protection to protect first responders, health professionals and family members who are educated in administering overdose prevention drugs, such as naloxone, from being sued.

Every day, 120 people die as a result of drug overdoses fueled by prescription painkillers while between 2000 and 2013, the rate of death from heroin overdoses nearly quadrupled. Kaine and his colleagues worry that people might be deterred from stepping in to give an overdose prevention drugs for fear of being used. Doctors, too, might be unwilling to prescribe opioid overdose drugs to persons other than a patient for the same reason.

"Last summer, I participated in a Project REVIVE training session in Lebanon (Va.) to learn how to administer the lifesaving drug naloxone, and heard firsthand how opioid overdose programs can be critical to preventing drug-related deaths," Kaine said, promising to do all he can to combat drug abuse and its often deadly toll.

###