'Steve's Law' Seeks To Fight Heroin Epidemic
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) - A woman who lost her fiancé to a heroin overdose says Minnesota lawmakers can do something about a growing epidemic that will save lives.
On Saturday night, the Steve Rummler Hope Foundation hosted an event at Tuttles in Hopkins to raise awareness about drug addiction.
Rummler died three years ago after a heroin overdose. He battled a prescription drug addiction for years following a back injury.
His former fiancé, Lexi Reed Holtum, is partnering with a state senator with the hope of helping other families afflicted by addiction.
"What the intentions of us doing this are to create a way to save lives, really," Holtum said.
She's working with Senator Chris Eaton of Brooklyn Center on a bill called "Steve's Law" for the 2014 legislative session.
If passed, it would allow first responders - including police officers and sheriff's deputies - to carry naloxone, an antidote for an opiate overdose.
Sen. Eaton has also experienced a tragic loss due to addiction. In 2007, her 23-year-old daughter Ariel died of a heroin overdose.
"She was way too young," Eaton said. "In my daughter's case, the first one on the scene was a police officer who did not have naloxone."
She believes Ariel might have had a second chance if a law like this was in place.
"It's making it easier for me to deal with her loss, just even talking about it and trying to make a difference with it," she said. "I just want to save some lives."
Currently, the law allows paramedics to carry the opiate antidote.
In addition to adding first responders to this list, this would allow workers at halfway houses and parents who have kids struggling with opiate addiction to have the antidote.
The 2014 legislative session starts at the end of February.
