Illinois is on track to join nearly two dozen other states that forgo citations for underage drinkers who call 911 to get medical help for those who have had too much to drink.
Proponents say the measure, which passed the Illinois House this month and was recently introduced in the Senate, would help remove the fear of legal trouble that prevents teens from calling for help for a friend who has passed out after drinking too much. The state enacted similar legislation several years ago for drug overdoses after a spate of heroin-related deaths.
State Rep. Scott Drury, D-Highwood, said the law would not give all underage drinkers a pass but would help minors in dire need of medical attention get help. Drury relayed a story about parents in his district who said their teenager needed medical attention after drinking too much.
“People were reluctant to call for help, but someone did. And then both the teenager and the friend who called ended up getting a citation for the situation,” Drury said. “The parents felt that was wrong, because we ought to be trying to protect kids rather than deter them from seeking medical help.”
From 2008 through 2012, the most recent years statistics were available, there were nine alcohol-induced deaths in Illinois of people under 21, the Illinois Department of Public Health said. Those were alcohol overdose cases only, and the numbers do not include deaths in which alcohol was a contributing factor, such as in fatal car crashes.
In a January report, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that the number of deaths in which alcohol was the underlying cause tended to be underreported.
Deaths are just one part of the picture. Thousands of underage drinkers are treated for alcohol-related emergencies — including car crashes — every year at hospitals across the Chicago area, the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said.
If teens are hesitant to call 911 in an emergency, the consequences can be dire, said Eric Foster, vice president for substance abuse policy at the Illinois Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Association.
“If someone becomes unconscious due to alcohol, it’s not necessarily certain that they will die, but if they don’t get medical attention, the probability increases,” Foster said.
Even if the law is eventually enacted, experts said, it will have little effect without a major campaign to educate people about the provision.
Indiana resident Dawn Finbloom’s teenage son, Brett, died in September 2012 — about two months after her state implemented an amnesty law similar to the one proposed in Illinois.
None of the teens who were drinking with Brett knew about the law, and they delayed calling for help, fearing they would get in trouble, Finbloom said. By the time someone finally dialed 911, it was too late.
Now, Finbloom and her husband are part of a statewide effort to educate teens and college students about the signs of alcohol poisoning and the amnesty law in hopes that other families may be spared the kind of grief they have endured.
“Every year there’s a new batch of teenagers, and if they don’t know about the law, then it’s not going to help,” she said.
Amnesty laws have been spreading across the nation in states and college campuses over the past decade. Cornell University instituted an amnesty policy in 2002, and a subsequent survey suggested the policy works.
The 2006 scientific survey found that prior to the amnesty policy, 19 percent of Cornell students reported that they had been in a situation in which they had considered calling 911 for someone they believed was suffering from alcohol poisoning, but of those only 4 percent actually called for help.
The survey found that two years after the university instituted the amnesty policy, calls for alcohol-related medical help jumped more than 22 percent.
“We’re trying to reduce the barrier of fear for minors … where they need some type of emergency medical care, but the conversation becomes more about whether law enforcement officers are going to respond to that call,” said amnesty advocate Aaron Letzeiser.
Letzeiser serves as founder and executive director of the The Medical Amnesty Initiative, a nonprofit organization that lobbies for medical amnesty laws across the country. He said 21 states and the District of Columbia have some kind of law on the books, and that more than a dozen others — including Illinois — are contemplating legislation.
Under Illinois’ proposed law, amnesty would apply only to the person in need of medical help and the people who call on their behalf, Drury said. That way if police officers show up at a party because of a noise complaint and discover that everyone is drinking while underage, partygoers will not be able to dodge a citation by claiming they need medical assistance.
Furthermore, the law would grant police officers discretion to determine whether amnesty is appropriate, and the people who made the 911 call must also fully cooperate with law enforcement and medical personnel to qualify, Drury said.
“This legislation should not be viewed as being soft on crime, because it’s not,” Drury said. “I just think there’s a difference between being soft on crime and being smart on policy, … and the public policy is that we don’t want kids to die.”
Twitter @mattwalberg1
