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SALT LAKE CITY — The House made changes and then approved a previously passed bill Thursday intended to encourage people taking illegal drugs to seek help for a companion who overdoses.
HB11 was amended with the support of sponsor Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Salt Lake City, to remove a requirement that people who report the drug overdose must give their names.
The bill, which makes seeking help for an overdose victim a mitigating circumstance in drug cases, passed 74-0 and now goes to the Senate.
Rep. Brian Greene, R-Pleasant Grove, said he proposed the change to make it easier to convince people to seek help for an overdose victim “if we don’t have to raise a red flag for them.”
Moss, who saw her bill pass the House on Wednesday, said she agreed to reconsider the language because “anything that will encourage more people to call, more lives to be saved, that’s a positive thing.”
