By Max Wallace
In 2010, the Princeton Review ranked the University of Georgia the No. 1 party school in the United States. Although the 2014 rankings saw UGA fall to No. 11, UGA students still know how to have a good time. This atmosphere makes for spectacular gamedays and weekend celebrations, but it can also lead to tragedy. Underage college students have opportunities to consume staggering amounts of alcohol, but when binge drinking leads to immediate health concerns, students frequently refrain from seeking medical attention because of their fear of legal repercussions. To combat this problem and prevent student deaths, the Georgia State Legislature passed a law last year dubbed the “Georgia 9-1-1 Medical Amnesty Law.”
The medical amnesty law was originally designed to address the rising rate of heroin abuse in the United States and its associated health concerns. Stephen Cardiges and Randall Brannen were Georgia residents and Eagle Scouts who overdosed on heroin and died in 2012 and 2013 respectively. Both were with friends who were capable of calling for medical assistance but chose not to when faced with the risk of prosecution for drug possession. These two cases are part of a much larger trend, where drug users die because they or their friends fear prosecution when seeking medical care. The most recent Georgia law is far from the first; 14 other states had already established similar medical amnesty laws, and the Massachusetts law is already credited with saving 120 lives over the past two years.
State Sen. Bill Cowsert, an attorney whose district includes UGA, came across many cases of accidental death in his work as a lawyer, but none of them were due to a heroin overdose. From Cowsert’s perspective, alcohol poisoning is an everpresent danger in Athens, and if medical amnesty is provided to heroin users, it should also be extended to college students who sometimes go overboard and drink too much. During 2011 orientation for instance, every UGA student was subjected to a presentation by the Athens solicitor general, informing incoming freshmen that choosing to drink while underage in Athens can have dire consequences. In other Georgia counties, underage drinking results in a simple ticket for a fine usually less than $300. In Athens, it results in a pair of handcuffs and a mugshot.
To date, the solicitor general has been true to his word. Nearly 1,000 UGA students each year are arrested for underage drinking, and a minor in possession charge leaves a stain on any permanent record. In spite of efforts by the UGA and Athens police departments to discourage underage drinking from occurring, there will always be 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds that choose to drink when the opportunity is presented to them. That is when the university’s harsh stance on underage drinking has tragic and unanticipated consequences.
UGA students are naturally hesitant to call for medical aid when doing so could result in waking up the next morning with a citation from the UGA Police Department sitting on their chest. When making a phone call for an ambulance can result in jail time, there is a natural tendency to downplay any injury resulting from illegal alcohol use. A nasty fall onto the concrete gets treated as a little knock on the head, and instead of seeking actual medical attention, friends give a prescription to “walk it off.” To them, a student who has drunk so much that they are having trouble breathing doesn’t need a doctor, they just “need a minute.” This type of thinking is a result of students trying to avoid criminal records, but sometimes what should have been a trip to the hospital the night before becomes a trip to the funeral home the next morning.
As a result of the Medical Amnesty Act, any person calling for medical aid is granted immunity from prosecution related to the medical call, regardless of whether the call was for themselves or another individual. This means students no longer have to choose between helping a friend and protecting their own future. For that reason, Cowsert refers to the act as the “Good Samaritan Bill.” Underage drinking is not something to be encouraged, but Georgia’s Legislature should be applauded for taking steps to ensure that attempts to enforce the law don’t result in unnecessary deaths. Everyone makes bad choices at times, and college students might make them more often, but choosing to have a few too many drinks shouldn’t cost someone his or her life.