Source: Radio New Zealand
A member’s bill by Green MP Kahurangi Carter passed its first hurdle on Wednesday night. VNP / Phil Smith
The mother of a young man who fell to his death while on drugs says legislation now going through Parliament could save lives, and politicians had the “power to make a difference”.
A member’s bill by Green MP Kahurangi Carter passed its first hurdle on Wednesday night. The legislation would prevent low-level drug prosecutions against those who call in suspected overdoses or bad drug reactions.
Shelley O’Dwyer’s son Jacob Gunnell died in 2022 after a negative reaction to LSD and a police statement told her emergency services were not called.
She told RNZ she believes if those with him at the time knew they would not “get in trouble” and called for help, “he could still be with us”.
“How would you feel if you had to live for the rest of your life knowing that you should have actually rang an ambulance and now that person’s passed away,” O’Dwyer said.
The New Zealand Drug Foundation has long called for change in this area, and executive director Sarah Helm said the law change could make a “big difference”.
“New Zealand loses three people every week to completely preventable, unintentional overdose, and that is a huge number of people,” she told RNZ.
Helm said currently people hesitate or fail to ring 111 or call for help in the event of an overdose or acute drug harm situation.
“We know from coronial cases that people do hesitate and that that causes death.”
NZ Drug Foundation executive director Sarah Helm Supplied/ NZ Drug Foundation
The law change would “remove that fear of prosecution that stops people from calling for help”, Helm said.
She said this was one of the “key planks” to prevent overdose, and currently there were not enough interventions to do so.
“We can expect to see, unfortunately, more overdose fatalities over the coming years because of the increase of the potency and volatility of the drug market.
“So every intervention we can get in place will help to protect New Zealand from that,” Helm said.
The bill passed its first reading on Wednesday night, with only National and New Zealand First opposed.
ACT’s Todd Stephenson said Carter pulled off a “feat” for a first-term Green MP, “She’s going to get the support of the ACT party on first reading to send this to the select committee.”
ACT’s Todd Stephenson. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Carter’s bill makes narrow amendments to the Misuse of Drugs Act, the Bail Act and the Parole Act.
It specifies someone calling for help during a suspected overdose would not be charged for low level offences such as personal possession or use of drugs, possession of drug utensils, or a breach of parole conditions relating to drug use
The Bill does not protect drug dealing, violent offending or Crimes Act offences and it preserves accountability for serious criminal behaviour.
Ultimately – it is designed to stop people from hesitating if they are in doubt.
Carter, speaking first during the debate, said normally when someone calls an ambulance to save a life, “they’re considered a hero”.
“When someone is trying to help their friend experiencing an overdose – that should remain the case.”
Labour’s Camilla Belich spoke in support, referencing evidence by the NZ Drug Foundation highlighting witnesses hesitancy to call for help as a contributing factor in drug deaths.
She said that evidence showed there was a “need” for the Bill.
“This is not about providing avenues for people to avoid arrest in cases of serious crime,” Belich added.
Labour’s Camilla Belich. ©VNP / Phil Smith
Speaking for ACT, Stephenson said under the current settings it was “sometimes unclear” if you reach out for help what the consequences were.
He said he wanted to make sure that when something does go wrong, people do not hesistate in calling emergency services, “because if you can get help quickly, drug overdoses can be attended to and people can actually survive”.
“It does actually matter how quickly people get medical attention.”
He emphasised it was not a “soft on crime” bill.
Speaking for Te Pāti Māori, Oriini Kaipara said for too long “our laws have created silence where there should have been action, they’ve created hesitation where there should have been urgency”.
She also said that Māori were almost three times more likely to die from an accidental overdose than non-Māori, and highlighted that Māori were “overpoliced, overcharged and over-represented in convictions for low level drug offences”.
“This bill directly addresses inequity.”
Te Pāti Māori MP Oriini Kaipara. Parliament TV
New Zealand First’s Casey Costello raised concerns about the Bill, while acknowledging the wider societal issue.
“It is important that we communicate the need to always seek help.
“I think it is a very sad indictment on our society that we have a message that is taken up by anyone, that they would defer or refuse to call help on the risk of a low level drug offence. I hope that we are a better society than that.”
However, Costello said in her experience it was not fear of prosecution that prevented people from seeking help, but a lack of knowledge, awareness and appreciation of the severity and seriousness of people’s conditions.
“I challenge the idea of legislating out discretion for police officers. For anyone who is involved in these situations, I have more faith in our police officers than I think is demonstrated here.”
She said it was not a law of clarity, but a law of complexity, and asked who the discretion would apply to in a particular situation.
New Zealand First’s Casey Costello. VNP / Phil Smith
National MP Rima Nakhle said her party was not supporting the Bill, “not because we’re politicking” or because the party did not care about O’Dwyer’s experience.
Nakhle said perceptions mattered, and it mattered if the government was seen to say, “someone can escape criminal prosecution because they thought about themselves more than thinking about that person that was overdosing and could die.”
Fellow National MP Sam Uffindell said police do routinely use discretion on minor posession in instances where lifesaving help is sought.
“Health services treat anyone in a crisis without refusing them or without billing.”
The Bill would now be considered further by the Health Select Committee, where the public would also have an opportunity to have their say.
National MP Sam Uffindell. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
O’Dwyer had been shocked to learn her son had taken drugs.
At 24 years old, she said Gunnell had “everything going for him”.
She described him as happy, social, positive, entrepreneurial, and fit: a Les Mills instructor and a team leader at a council gym in Auckland. She also said he was a great cook.
O’Dwyer learnt Gunnell had an adverse reaction to LSD. Reports later told her he was “all hot and flustered and he didn’t look well”.
“On CCTV, we found out later on that he’d run across the road at Symonds Street, and he just basically jumped off Symonds Street Bridge,” she said.
She later had to identify his body at the morgue, “I was in total shock.”
“It’s like an out of body experience.
“You see it in the movies, you see it on the news and – it’s just the worst thing right, for any parent to live through that and having to live it every day.
“It was just so sudden and tragic.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
