Suppose you are at a party, perhaps you are 21, perhaps you aren’t. Things are going fine. That is, until someone takes one drink too many. Now some minor is blacked out and breathing funny.

What do you do? You might suggest a call to emergency medical services. Everyone agrees except for the host. They are afraid of getting in trouble for giving alcohol to a minor.

The host is in charge, so everyone reluctantly listens. No one calls the paramedics. You leave the party later that night. On the way out, you catch a glimpse through a cracked door of that minor passed out and “backpacked” on a bed. You don’t think too much of it.

A couple of days later you find out the underage student died later that night. Their blood alcohol level was 0.35. Worse than that, they asphyxiated on their own vomit. At a high enough blood alcohol content level, the gag reflex no longer works, and “backpacking” that student was pointless.

Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be too hard for any student to find themselves in this very situation. College can create a culture where the safety of the group is put before the safety of an individual, even when that individual’s safety means life or death.

Now, it is without a doubt wrong to not call emergency medical services when someone is in need. But what if there was a way to remove everyone’s fear of getting in trouble?

Imagine when the police and medics show up, they simply broke up the party. Someone could make that necessary call knowing that for the most part people wouldn’t be held liable for their actions that night.

Medical amnesty laws across the country accomplish this very thing. They remove the fear of getting in trouble, empowering students to do the right thing when parties take a turn for the worse.

Unfortunately, Iowa lags far behind much of the rest of the country with our lacking medical amnesty laws.

There is no good reason not to have these laws. They don’t encourage underage drinking, and they don’t enable procuring for minors. They allow students in sticky situations to see that calling 911 is the best option for everyone. Medical amnesty laws allow students to put the safety of others before their own fears.

Medical amnesty laws are a logical and easy step in protecting the lives of young adults. Iowa should catch up with the rest of the country and pass its own version of these laws.