What is Medical Amnesty?

Subject to the laws linked below, Maine law provides protection against being charged or arrested for violating the law when someone calls for help for themselves or another person who is or might be experiencing an overdose of drugs or alcohol. The main requirement is that this protection only applies if law enforcement learns about the overdose from the person seeking protection from being charged. If police just happen upon someone overdosing, or someone else is the one who called for help, you are not guaranteed protection. This is designed to motivate people to call for help for themselves or others without fear of being charged with offenses like Possession of Alcohol by a Minor, Consumption of Alcohol by a Minor, possession of a fake ID, or crimes such as possession of scheduled substances (drugs), or other relatively criminal offenses like trespass, providing alcohol to a minor (18-21), disorderly conduct, etc. This protection also applies if you’re calling but you’re on probation or on conditional release from jail.

This protection does not apply if you’re violating a protection order, committing the crime of operating a vehicle under the influence, or other serious crimes listed in the statute linked below, however it may still be beneficial if you’re charged with a crime to have taken good-faith steps to preserve human life, as serious bodily injury is an aggravating factor for most crimes. If you would like any of this explained further, do not hesitate to reach out to Student Legal Services for further information, but if there is a medical emergency, please call 9-1-1 for assistance.

Maine Laws:

Medical Amnesty as it applies to crimes, and a list of offenses for which it doesn’t apply:

https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/17-a/title17-Asec1111-B.html

Here’s a list of the civil violations for possession alcohol that this defense can apply to, with the last paragraph describing how the defense works:

https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/28-a/title28-asec2051.html