Indiana spreads word about Lifeline

To raise awareness of the Indiana Lifeline Law, Attorney General Greg Zoeller and State Sen. Jim Merritt, R-Indianapolis, have been visiting campuses across the state. On Monday, they visited IU to continue this effort.

The Indiana Lifeline Law creates legal immunity for those who would call emergency services for an intoxicated friend, as long as they remain with that person and cooperate with responders. The bill was championed by former IUSA President Justin Kingsolver, and was largely the effort of students across the state, Merritt said.
The law took effect July 1.

IDS What brings the both of you to Bloomington?

Zoeller “We are actually going around to a number of campuses. This is a student initiated bill that came from a number of campuses and their student governments.  But the reason we go around is because there is still not enough recognition or understanding of the new Lifeline Act, so we have to go around to the campuses and try to get a little attention to it and really challenge the students to take a leadership role in a bill that they helped get passed.”

Merritt “I authored the law and Justin Kingsolver among many others came to me last year with this idea, and after some consideration, I decided to author the bill. Like the attorney general, I go around to colleges and high schools and talk to kids about underage drinking and binge drinking and the existence of this law. I’ve got a son at DePauw, a daughter at Hanover...I’ve got kids in college now, and they talk about this. My son’s fraternity at DePauw is having No Shave October to call attention to the law. I just went through No Shave September to bring attention to the law.”


IDS  How did you come to be their legislative sponsor, Mr. Merritt?

Merritt “Justin Kingsolver is a family friend and I went to Indiana University. They know I have college age kids. It just kind of fit hand and glove. For full disclosure, I came down to speak to a reporter a month or two ago. Since then, a young man in Carmel passed away, and that’s really what prompted me to grow my beard in September because I felt like I wasn’t doing enough to spread the word about the law.”


IDS How did students first approach you about the bill exactly? When and how did you decide that this law needed to be authored?

Merritt “When they approached me, I was 50/50 on the piece of legislation. I think the attorney general agrees with me — we never want to incentivize underage drinking. But we know that kids make mistakes. Once we came to the clarification that the inebriated, if you will, that is in desperate need of help. There’s no incentive to get to that condition, does not have immunity and only the caller and the kids that are there and will wait for the police, they are the ones that get the immunity, we got clarification of exactly how the law would go. That was the catalyst for the energy behind the bill. Now, early on, prosecutors were a little iffy, and that’s where the attorney general comes in.


IDS  Mr. Zoeller, what exactly was your role in moving forward this law and when did you decide to support it as well?

Zoeller When they came to the legislature, I helped introduce them to some prosecutors. I could identify where the likely questions would be raised, so my role—we don’t vote in support or reject bills—I tried to give them some advice and frankly I thought they would learn the lesson that bills are hard to pass. I was skeptical that it would ever be passed on the first time, and it did, without objection. It unanimously passed both houses. Now they did learn how to compromise—there was a lot of back and forth between legislatures and prosecutors about how the bill was originally structured. But it also shows students voices can be heard at the state house, so I hope that is one of the lessons they learned and they stay involved.


IDS What was the process of creating the law like, and were there any snags along the way?

Zoeller They took out all the language about the person that was in trouble…that goes back to whether you are somehow promoting or incentivizing a person who binge drinks, so they took out all reference to the person taken to the hospital.
It really was the prosecutors who had to get over the hurdle of “immunity.” Prosecutors don’t like that word.
Law enforcement and the prosecutors and the criminal justice system get a lot of respect by the legislators...but I think the students worked the process and developed some support, and again...getting a bill passed unanimously.”

Merritt “On the first try.”

Zoeller “Yeah, it’s very remarkable.”

Merritt “They came into the state house very prepared and were so professional...it was remarkable how many legislators made comments about how impressed they all were. That really gave it a lot of energy.”


IDS How does the bill function exactly?”

Merritt “I will tell you, there are a lot of misunderstandings about the bill. I have a friend who’s got kids at IU, and the kids did not want to get the sick individual in trouble, and that’s why they didn’t call.”

Zoeller “This is really to empower students. They were the ones who really brought the bill to the legislatures, so it’s their bill for them. They are the ones who have to get the word out to their friends. “


IDS  How do you feel the bill has worked thus far?

Zoeller “There’s not statistics. We’re going to work with law enforcement and prosecutors to see if we can’t get at least some examples. But the way the bill works, it won’t show up as a criminal charge, so we won’t have statistics like that. But we may get some anecdotal evidence that someone has been saved, and that might serve a pretty good purpose to show someone stepped up and did the right thing.


IDS  How are you working otherwise to spread awareness of the bill?”

Merritt “I have a partnership with an entity called “Promising Futures of Central Indiana”, and we are raising money to do direct mail and radio/TV public service announcements.

We will continually spread the word.”


IDS Does this happen often? Do student governments usually make as professional an attempt to make laws like Lifeline?

Merritt “This is the first serious attempt.”

Zoeller: “That’s why I was so impressed.”

Merritt “I’ve had a bill pass the Senate five or six times and never pass the House. Getting a bill into law is a terrific accomplishment.”