This bill wants to protect you if you call for help when someone is having a drug overdose. Right now, you might be scared to call for help because you think you'll get in trouble for having drugs. The bill says you won't get charged for small drug offences if you call for help to save someone's life.

The bill will protect you, the person having the overdose, and anyone else there when you call for help. You won't get in trouble for having drugs, using drugs, or sharing drugs with friends. If you're on parole and not supposed to use drugs, you'll be protected too.

About three people die each week in New Zealand from accidentally taking too many drugs. People of all ages die from overdoses, but it happens most to people between 45 and 54 years old. These people often don't go to the hospital when they need help. This bill wants to make it easier for people to call for help and save lives.

Different drugs can cause overdoses. Opioid drugs cause about 65 deaths a year. Other drugs like MDMA, cocaine, and methamphetamine cause about 83 deaths a year, usually when mixed with other things. Sometimes people take drugs that have dangerous things added to them without knowing.

This bill doesn't want to make drug use okay. It just wants to save lives when people have taken too many drugs or have a bad reaction to drugs, whether the drugs are legal or illegal.