Indiana’s Lifeline Law expansion sent to governor’s desk
Mar 21, 2025
Lifeline law expansion sent to governor’s desk
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The Indiana House has passed an extension to the state’s Lifeline Law, sending it to the governor’s desk for signature.
The state’s current law, passed in 2012, grants criminal immunity to anyone who calls 911 to a
sk for help for someone drinking underage and experiencing a medical emergency. The expansion aims to also protect the person drinking.
“Currently, the person in need of medical attention is not protected,” Purdue University Student Body Vice President Rebecca Siener, a junior, said.
She spent some of her college career as a resident assistant.
“Our students are more fearful of the repercussions of underage drinking than the potentially life threatening condition of alcohol poisoning,” Siener said.
She, along with her fellow student government leaders, spent the last year trying to get protection for all parties. She said she also assisted in writing the new legislation.
Siener watched the House pass the expansion in an 87-3 vote on Thursday. It passed in the Senate earlier this session.
“The last step is the signing ceremony,” Siener said. “The governor has the option to veto it, but we don’t see him vetoing it, and then it will go into effect July 1 of 2025, and we will have changed state law.”
The new changes may soon be etched in law, but Siener says she stands on the backs of students who came before her. In 2012, when the Lifeline Law first passed, it was Purdue student government leaders who pushed for the change.
“The former Purdue Student Body President Brett Highley came up with the idea of the Indiana Lifeline Law and having a medical amnesty policy within Indiana and they proposed this to former Sen. (Jim) Merritt,” Seiner said. “Former Sen. Merritt agreed to author it.”
Purdue students formed the Indiana Lifeline Law Coalition to get the original law passed. It’s made up of college students at various Indiana universities united in advocating for the policy.
The coalition still stands today.
“Here we are, 12 years later, trying to expand it,” Siener said. “If students could change law in 2012 to save lives, we can do so, and, we will do so, again in 2025.”
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