As her friend was overdosing on drugs laced with fentanyl, Katrina Adams called 911 in a panic.
While paramedics were working to save the woman's life, police walked through the back door and began arresting other people in the house on drug charges.
"A friend is overdosing and they're concerned with what they're overdosing on, but only to follow up with, 'Well, where did they get it?'" said Adams, a drug user living in Ottawa.
In May 2017, the government introduced the Good Samaritan Drug Overdose Act -- a law meant to prevent scenes like the one Adams witnessed last summer. A year after the legislation was passed, however, many drug users are still too scared to call for help in overdose crises because of the threat of arrest.
The act provides a degree of amnesty for people who overdose, or who contact 911 to report an overdose. It protects those who report an overdose -- and everyone else at the scene when police and paramedics arrive -- from charges stemming from drug possession and breach of conditions, like parole or probation, related to possession.
