Jennifer Olson called 911 in 2009 to save a friend who was overdosing. The friend survived after being placed in a medically induced coma for 37 days — but Olson ended up in the Waukesha County Jail for those same 37 days, and by the time she got out, she had lost custody of her children, her apartment and her job.
Olson was on parole and under community supervision at the time, with two months of sobriety behind her after rehab, according to Wisconsin Examiner. She was incarcerated because calling for help violated the conditions of her parole, even though she was trying to save a life. Olson has said she would not have gone to jail for calling 911 if the emergency had been a heart attack instead of an overdose.
Her case is now a rallying point for the Wisconsin Good Samaritan Coalition, which is pushing lawmakers to strengthen the state's protections for people who seek emergency help during a drug overdose. The coalition met Monday night at Hope United Methodist Church in Eau Claire, drawing students from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, with support from the groups WISDOM and ProSay, the same report notes.
A Law With Gaps Advocates Say Still Costs Lives
Wisconsin's current Good Samaritan law, passed in 2013, grants immunity from prosecution for possession of a controlled substance to people who summon or provide emergency medical assistance during an overdose, per the statute language published by the Wisconsin Legislature. A 2017 update expanded that shield to also cover people on parole, probation or extended supervision — but that protection expired under a sunset clause in 2020, the Examiner's report states.
That gap is what landed Juli Bliefnick in trouble. She said her supervision was revoked and she was sent to jail after calling 911 to save a life, and in the process she lost her job and her housing. “People shouldn't have to choose between their freedom and another person's life,” she said, according to the same account.
Lynn Buske told the coalition gathering that Wisconsin's law, as written, actively deters people from calling 911 during overdoses. Mark Rice, identified as WISDOM's transformational justice campaign coordinator, said the organization — which has 12 affiliates working on systemic injustice issues — supports the coalition's push for change.
Lawmakers Have Stalled Before
Recent attempts to change Wisconsin's Good Samaritan law stalled in the state Assembly after Speaker Robin Vos did not allow the measure to come up for a vote, the Wisconsin Examiner reported. Advocates at the Eau Claire meeting were encouraged to sign a petition, talk about the issue publicly and press their legislators directly, the outlet's report notes.
Sarah Ferber, a regional organizer for FREE, told the gathering she has had friends die of overdoses and has personally called 911 to save lives. Kelly Green said she once administered six vials of Narcan — a brand name for the opioid-reversal drug naloxone — to save her partner during an overdose, but in another instance did not call 911 at all because she feared the legal consequences. Andrew Garr, executive director of the Wisconsin Milkweed Alliance, said he has also administered naloxone to revive someone experiencing an overdose.
Deaths Have Dropped, But Fear Persists
Statewide, opioid overdose deaths fell from a 2022 peak of 1,459 to 815 in 2024, according to state health statistics cited by the Examiner. Despite that decline, the outlet reports that fear of arrest remains the number one reason people cite for not calling 911 when someone is overdosing.
The Wisconsin Good Samaritan Coalition's own materials point to a related national figure: roughly 47% of overdose deaths reported to the CDC between January and June 2021 happened in the presence of a bystander, according to the Wisconsin Good Samaritan Coalition. The group also notes that nearly 1,427 of Wisconsin's opioid-related deaths in 2021 involved synthetic opioids, most often fentanyl.
Bliefnick pointed to Iowa as a model, saying it has broader and more protective Good Samaritan laws than Wisconsin's current statute. Iowa's code includes a section titled “Persons seeking medical assistance for drug-related overdose,” according to the Iowa Legislature. For now, Wisconsin's law still offers what advocates describe as very few protections — and families like Olson's are left arguing that saving a life should never come with the risk of losing everything else.
