HB 6581, An Act Concerning Emergency Intervention By a Police Officer When a Person is Incapacitated by Drugs or Due to a Medical Emergency

Relying on police as first responders to drug overdoses and other addiction crises will not improve our public health outlook for opioid addiction, but rather will prop up the system of mass incarceration. Today, there is widespread recognition that disordered substance use is,
fundamentally, an illness to be treated and not a criminal problem to be punished. In fact, drug addiction is classified as a disability protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act. It is time to think differently. It is time to make policy that supports a longer-term move away from dispatching police to drug use calls in favor of a public health-based approach.