Imagine lying on your dorm room floor, seizing, while your roommates stand above you terrified and frozen. They want to call for help, but they’re also scared, scared that getting you medical attention could destroy your college career. This was the reality TJ McGee, a second-year student at UC Berkeley, faced two years ago. His roommates hesitated to call emergency services because they knew that asking for help could mean facing university discipline.

For too long, California college students have faced an impossible choice: seek help during an overdose and risk getting kicked out or put on academic probation, or stay silent and hope they survive. That’s about to change.

Starting in July, Assembly Bill 602 will require all California State University and University of California campuses to offer students rehabilitation services for drug and alcohol use before taking any disciplinary action. Translation: you can finally ask for help without destroying your academic future.

The bill was drafted by students from UC Berkeley, UC Davis, and other universities working with San Francisco Assemblymember Matt Haney. Their motivation was personal. Saanvi Arora, a fourth-year computer science and legal studies student at UC Berkeley who helped draft the bill, lost a close friend to overdose when she was 15. Aditi Hariharan, UC Davis student and president of the UC Student Association, watched a close friend struggle with alcohol addiction in college and eventually drop out because recovery services weren’t accessible.

The numbers behind this legislation are sobering. Drug overdoses are the third leading cause of death for 18- to 24-year-olds in California. About 4% of college students report using cocaine and 8% report using hallucinogens, according to the American College Health Association.

But here’s the thing, the final version of AB 602 came with some compromises. University officials worried the original bill would give students blanket amnesty for any violation, including assault or property damage. The revised version now limits protections to once per academic term and doesn’t extend protections to students who witness someone overdosing and call for help. It’s not perfect, but it’s a significant step.

UC Berkeley already operates a Collegiate Recovery Program that students can access voluntarily, and six UC campuses now have similar programs. Cal State is still figuring out implementation details and how costs will be handled.

“You can’t engage in recovery if you’re already dead”, Hariharan said. “This legislation allows folks to seek medical care”.

After his overdose, McGee spent months crawling through recovery alone, holding his education together with desperation. He shouldn’t have had to do that. Now, future students in the UC and Cal State systems won’t have to choose between their lives and their degrees.