The Health Committee has been urged to expand the 'social sharing' exemption in the Drug Overdose (Assistance Protection) Legislation Bill, with submitters warning the current drafting could unintentionally criminalise routine social behaviour among friend groups.

The member's bill, championed by Green MP Kahurangi Carter, would prevent low-level drug prosecutions when people seek help due to risk of overdose or an acute reaction to illicit or prescribed drugs. Under the bill, police could not charge people at the scene after an ambulance had been called, and officers would not have grounds to search for evidence resulting from an emergency call. Drug dealers would not be protected, but the bill includes an exemption for 'social sharing', defined as gifting or sharing between up to five people without material benefit or avoiding material detriment (RNZ).

Emma Carroll, operations manager for drug testing service Know Your Stuff, told the committee in a personal capacity that the five-person limit should be raised to ten. Substances are commonly purchased by the gram or point and shared within a social group of up to ten people, she said. Carroll also warned that friend groups pooling resources, including cash, covering a meal, providing transport, or trading favours, could be caught by the 'material benefit' clause and risk criminalising ordinary social conduct (RNZ).

Know Your Stuff general manager Casey Spearin, appearing separately, cited findings from the Ministerial Advisory Group on Organised Crime that police drug seizures no longer affect levels of supply or use. Spearin also pointed to Canada and the United States as jurisdictions that already have similar good Samaritan overdose laws in place. A 2019 amendment allowing police discretion over drug possession and use was, in Spearin's words, 'not evenly applied across different communities' (RNZ).

Know Your Stuff estimated the bill could save 18 to 29 lives a year based on current overdose rates (RNZ).

Peer support worker Zoe Deans also appeared before the committee, testifying that fear of getting help compounds acute physical or mental distress relating to drug use (RNZ).

The bill was referred to the Health Committee on 29 April 2026 following a motion agreed to in the House (Hansard). The NZ Drug Foundation had published a media release the day before, on 28 April, expressing support for the bill ahead of its parliamentary debate (NZ Drug Foundation). Community Scoop covered the bill's first reading in July 2026, reporting its core principle as 'if in doubt, call for help' (Community Scoop).

The Public Health Communication Centre published a briefing on 9 June 2026 by Jacek Kolodziej arguing that good Samaritan overdose laws can help reduce preventable deaths from accidental drug overdose (PHCC). RNZ reported on 25 June that the Health Committee was hearing submissions on the bill during that week (RNZ).

The broader tension in the committee's consideration is whether the bill's exemptions are calibrated narrowly enough to maintain political and public support while being broad enough to achieve their stated harm-reduction purpose. Carroll's submission on the 'material benefit' clause goes to a genuine drafting problem: the line between commercial supply and social sharing among friends is not always clean, and a clause broad enough to capture a bag of groceries traded for a shared gram of something risks sweeping in conduct the bill is not designed to target.

Spearin's reference to the Ministerial Advisory Group on Organised Crime findings reinforces a longer-running argument in drug policy circles that enforcement-led approaches to supply have diminishing returns at the user level. Combined with his point about the uneven application of the 2019 police discretion amendment, it places the bill in a wider context of whether the criminal justice system is the right instrument for managing drug-related harm in the first place. The committee will need to weigh those submissions against the political reality that any expansion of the social sharing threshold or softening of the material benefit test will draw scrutiny from those who see the bill as a step toward de facto decriminalisation.

What the select committee ultimately recommends on the five-to-ten person threshold and the material benefit clause will shape whether the bill can command majority support at its second reading.