Can one go to hospital for treatment after drug taking gone wrong, and not get...

hatrickpatrick

...arrested afterwards?

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/conditions-of-women-ill-after-taking-cannabis-improved-1.1413637

Apparently there's a bad batch of cannabis going around at the moment that landed two women in hospital with extremely serious side effects. This isn't the thread for discussing that, there's already a thread about the incident itself.

But what interests me is the Gardai appealing for people to seek medical attention if they get into difficulty with drugs. Made me start thinking: Do doctors have a legal obligation to inform the Gardai if a patient arrives in A&E with drug overdose / bad batch symptoms and admits that's what caused them? Do such people tend to be prosecuted later? Or do the Gardai tend to let them off due to the obvious disincentive to seek potentially life saving treatment if you think you're going to subsequently end up in prison?
How does this work?

NOTE: I don't use drugs myself except for alcohol, this is pure curiosity

Washington Irving

Not sure about Ireland, but in some US states doctors are not allowed to inform police in these situations. Make sense imo, could potentially save some lives which is obviously a lot more important than catching some drug users.

Martyn1989

No of course they don't arrest and charge them? Why would they?

DEFTLEFTHAND

It's only illegal to be in possession of the drugs in question, you can't prosecute somebody for overdosing or having a bad reaction.

juice1304

As stated above it is not illegal to be high on drugs unless driving of course, only being in possession of them. Doctor patient confidentiality and all that etc..

Grayson

And to clarify, there's no bad batch of cannabis.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/cannabis-ruled-out-as-women-come-out-of-mystery-coma-29312116.html

biko

"She is talking and everything. It is good news and some of the prayers for her worked."

lol

humbert

biko wrote: »

lol

I love the implication that some of the prayers didn't work :pac:

Meeja, always so damn quick to vilify the ganje.

Shall they call for bans on deoderants now

J K

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Do such people tend to be prosecuted later?

It's not illegal to have used drugs.

It's illegal to have them in your possession. Section 3 and 15 Misuse of Drugs Act 1977.

Grayson

J K wrote: »

It's not illegal to have used drugs.

It's illegal to have them in your possession. Section 3 and 15 Misuse of Drugs Act 1977.

So rule of thumb is if you see the cops, swallow.

drkpower

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

... Do doctors have a legal obligation to inform the Gardai if a patient arrives in A&E with drug overdose / bad batch symptoms and admits that's what caused them?:D

As a general rule, doctors are not legally permitted to release such information to the gardai (duty of confidentiality, data protection etc)

yara

this whole episode hurts my brain!! the mother knows the hash didn't do it but hopes those dealing in it get done!! what about the aerosaul manufacturer now then? or is that ok cos it was bought in a shop and comes with a fcuking health warning!! i guess she's not the girl trying to bring up her daughter that her aunt makes her out to be.

so much to do with whole episode is beyond stupid!!