Legal/Ethical Issue

[cfaulknor]

I went on a call the other day to our local ski hill. 21 y/o male fell and had a possible back injury. Upon examination by our Paramedic, he had no feeling from the nipple line down. Could not move his toes, absolutely no feeling, but was awake, alert, and oriented. When we were assessing him inside our ambulance, his friend came in frantically searching for this guy's cell phone to call his parents (this will be important later). We made him leave so we could transport.

Anyway, en route, this guy states that he's had 5 beers, and his breathing has gone from normal to what our medic called "belly breathing" due to spinal cord swelling. We dropped him off and went back to our station. When we were cleaning out the ambulance, we found a 1"x2" (very small) plastic bag containing marajuana. Personally, I think that might have been why the friend mentioned above was so frantically searching. That being said, we have no way of knowing who it belonged to.

The people that were on the crew had different opinions on how to handle it from that point. Opinions were:

1. It was only a small amount, the kid is paralyzed for life anyway, just flush it and leave well enough alone.

2. Call the police, give it to them, and if they want the patient's name, give it to them

3. Call the police, give it to them, but if they want the patient's information, they will have to subpoena it.

What would you guys have done, and why?

[p3medic]

I would have tossed it....I find drugs on a regular basis, and to be honest, the cops cant be bothered with writing up a report for a small amt of marijuana....and like you said, this kid has much more important things to worry about than a possible misdemeanor possesion charge...IMHO

[Just Plain Ruff]

Turn it in to your supervisor and let them deal with it.

the kid had too much to worry about from here on out so I would not have turned it in to the cops.

I have too much to worry about in my daily duties of work to be worried about it so let the supervisor handle it. That's what they get paid for.

[WannaBEMT]

I agree with turn in to supervisor, that CYA, then forget about it.

Jenn

[NREMT-Basic]

I agree ethically with just flushing it. The problem here is that if it ever came up in a legal setting in any way, you are cooked. If you flush it, you can be charged with tampering with evidence, a felony in many states. Bag it, tag it and give it to your supervisor. Also include it in the addendum to your run report/PCR. Good on ya for tossing the "buddy" out of your rig. Plus 5.

[ERDoc]

We can assume where it came from, but there is no way to prove it. As others have said, this kid might have enough to worry about. I would turn it over to a supervisor to CYA and document it (not necessarily on his chart).

[Asysin2leads]

The ethical thing would be for your partner to bring the rolling papers this time and return your Phish CD, man... I MEAN, UMMMM, the correct thing to do would be to notify your supervisor if you have the heebie jeebies about tossing it. If the police really have nothing better to do then try to build a case about who had the wacky tobaccy on them in the back of the ambulance, and given the amount of people in the back of your ambulance, "reasonable doubt" in a court of law would be a pretty easy thing to accomplish, your supervisor will take care of it.

[flight-lp]

Puff, puff, pass my friend, puff, puff, pass...................... :twisted: :wink:

[Asysin2leads]

Dude, have your like, ever really LISTENED to the sirens, man? It's awesome!

[Ridryder 911]

And come to think after all those years you carried those hemostats, and you thought they would never come in handy... 8)

Go to the sup..

R/r 911