ArticleThe International journal on drug policy2017
Why are some people who have received overdose education and naloxone reticent to call Emergency Medical Services in the event of overdose?
Article in The International journal on drug policy, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 84 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
84 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Effectiveness of naloxone distribution in community settings to reduce opioid overdose deaths among people who use drugs: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC public health · 2025Pooled it
- Recruiting a National Sample of First Response Agencies to Participate in an Overdose Prevention Research Project: Randomized Controlled Trial and Feasibility Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Trial
- Evaluating demographic variation in no-cost naloxone distribution in North Carolina: a cross-sectional survey study.Harm reduction journal · 2026Article
- Contrasting perspectives and applications of the Good Samaritan Overdose Prevention Law: insights from people who use and distribute drugs in Rhode Island.Health & justice · 2026Article
- "You've involved us knowing that we don't think about the law like you": a qualitative study on Supersavers' perspective of overdose engagement in Skåne county, South Sweden.Harm reduction journal · 2026Article
- Community supervision during Oregon's partial decriminalization Measure 110: Criminal legal system involvement, overdose, and naloxone access.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2026Article
- Understanding the role of overdose witnesses: responses and characteristics of people who inject drugs in Oakland and San Francisco.Harm reduction journal · 2026Article
- Article
- Barriers to bystander interventions in suspected opioid-associated out-of-hospital cardiac arrests: A multiple methods study of 9-1-1 calls.Resuscitation · 2025Article
- Overdose education and naloxone distribution among women with a history of OUD transitioning to the community following jail release.Health & justice · 2025Article
- Establishing a community advisory board to align harm reduction research with the unique needs of Black and Latine communities.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- Article
- "You can't incarcerate yourself out of the drug problem in America:" A qualitative examination of Colorado's 2022 Fentanyl criminalization law.Health & justice · 2025Article
- Epidemiology of 911 Calls for Opioid Overdose in Nogales, Arizona.The western journal of emergency medicine · 2025Article
- Optimizing placement of public-access naloxone kits using geospatial analytics: a modelling study.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2025Article
- Time-space characteristics of emergency medical service attendance and layperson naloxone administration during non-fatal opioid overdoses in Rhode Island: A retrospective, event-level analysis.Annals of epidemiology · 2025Article
- "You take care of people, people will take care of you": Moral Economies and an Unpredictable Drug Market.PloS one · 2025Article
- Characterizing and responding to stimulant overdoses: Findings from a mixed methods study of people who use cocaine and other stimulants in New England.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2025Article
- Implementation of an EMS-based naloxone distribution program: A qualitative evaluation.Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians open · 2024Article
- Linkage facilitation for opioid use disorder in criminal legal system contexts: a primer for researchers, clinicians, and legal practitioners.Health & justice · 2024Article
24 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundOverdose Education and Naloxone Distribution (OEND) training for persons who inject drugs (PWID) underlines the importance of summoning emergency medical services (EMS). To encourage PWID to do so, Colorado enacted a Good Samaritan law providing limited immunity from prosecution for possession of a controlled substance and/or drug paraphernalia to the overdose victim and the witnesses who in good faith provide emergency assistance. This paper examines the law's influence by describing OEND trained PWIDs' experience reversing overdoses and their decision about calling for EMS support.
methodsFindings from two complementary studies, a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews with OEND trained PWID who had reversed one or more overdoses, and an on-going fieldwork-based project examining PWIDs' self-identified health concerns were triangulated to describe and explain participants' decision to call for EMS.
resultsIn most overdose reversals described, no EMS call was made. Participants reported several reasons for not doing so. Most frequent was the fear that despite the Good Samaritan law, a police response would result in arrest of the victim and/or witness for outstanding warrants, or sentence violations. Fears were based on individual and collective experience, and reinforced by the city of Denver's aggressive approach to managing homelessness through increased enforcement of misdemeanors and the imposition of more recent ordinances, including a camping ban, to control space. The city's homeless crisis was reflected as well in the concern expressed by housed PWID that an EMS intervention would jeopardize their public housing.
conclusionResults suggest that the immunity provided by the Good Samaritan law does not address PWIDs' fear that their current legal status as well as the victim's will result in arrest and incarceration. As currently conceived, the Good Samaritan law does not provide immunity for PWIDs' already enmeshed in the criminal justice system, or PWID fearful of losing their housing.
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Registered trials
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