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Myth

"Calling emergency services is sure to bring you trouble."

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Content is undergoing medical and legal review. Changes possible.

What's behind it

The fear of prosecution is real and understandable — but it leads people to not call 112 in an emergency, or to call too late. The myth raises the threshold to act.

What's actually true

  • Rendering aid is a legal duty in Germany under § 323c StGB — anyone who calls 112 is acting lawfully.
  • Emergency medical services and emergency doctors are bound by medical confidentiality. Their job is care, not reporting you.
  • Police are only mandatorily involved in certain situations (e.g. unexplained death, danger to others, public space with a complaint) — not as standard for every substance emergency.
  • Without getting help, the worst case is not prosecution but death or permanent harm — also for the person helping (failure to render aid is a criminal offence in its own right).

What follows

Call 112. Rendering aid protects you legally, not rendering aid can become a criminal offence. levelll cannot promise blanket impunity — but those who help carry the smallest legal risk.

The myth that “an emergency call brings trouble” is widespread in the using community and demonstrably leads to delayed or absent calls for help. In documented Berlin GHB and opioid deaths, hesitating by mere minutes was often the decisive factor.

What the law actually says:

  • Rendering aid is a duty (§ 323c StGB). Anyone who does not help despite a recognizable emergency commits an offence.
  • Emergency medical services have a duty of confidentiality — their job is medical care.
  • Police are not automatically involved — only in cases of death, danger to others, or specific grounds for police action.
  • Substances at the scene are usually secured as an “incidental find” but are not the primary reason for prosecution of those helping.

What levelll explicitly cannot promise (D-002):

  • No blanket impunity for use or possession
  • No guarantee that police will not investigate in any case
  • No advice on prosecution — that is a lawyer’s job

Practical effect: those who help protect the other person’s life and their own legal position. Those who do not help risk both.

For legal questions after an emergency: seek legal advice — low-threshold initial information, for example through Drogenhilfe Berlin or directly from a criminal defence lawyer.

Sources

  • § 323c StGB (Unterlassene Hilfeleistung)
  • ADR D-002 (docs/04-decisions/D-002-immunitaets-sprache.md)
  • drugcom Faktencheck Notruf