SESSION OF 2025
SUPPLEMENTAL NOTE ON HOUSE BILL NO. 2159
As Amended by House Committee on Health
and Human Services
Brief*
HB 2159, as amended, would exempt law enforcement
agencies from certain requirements of the State Board of
Pharmacy’s statewide emergency opioid antagonist protocol
(EOA protocol) and create the Emergency Opioid Antagonists
Assistance Grant Program and Fund. [Note: The requirement
for an EOA protocol was established by 2017 HB 2217.]
Emergency Opioid Antagonists Assistance Grant
Program and Fund (New Section One)
The bill would create the Emergency Opioid Antagonists
Assistance Grant Program (Program) and Fund (Fund),
administered by the Attorney General (AG), and available to
all Kansas law enforcement agencies to use to purchase
emergency opioid antagonists. The bill would direct an annual
transfer of $500,000 from the State General Fund (SGF) to
the Fund beginning on July 1, 2025.
The bill would direct the AG to develop and implement
the Program with the goal of providing financial assistance to
law enforcement agencies across the state to purchase
emergency opioid antagonists to carry while on duty. The bill
would state that in order to participate in the Program, a law
enforcement agency would be required to adopt a policy
regarding the administration of emergency opioid antagonists.
The bill would prioritize small law enforcement agencies in
the distribution of funds.
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*Supplemental notes are prepared by the Legislative Research
Department and do not express legislative intent. The supplemental
note and fiscal note for this bill may be accessed on the Internet at
https://klrd.gov/ Medical Director Exemption (Section 2)
The bill would exempt law enforcement agencies from
the requirement that first responder agencies have a
physician medical director or licensed pharmacist on their
staff for the purposes of administering the EOA protocol.
Background
The bill was introduced by Representatives Proctor and
Hoheisel.
House Committee on Health and Human Services
In the House Committee hearing, two private citizens
and a representative of Kansas Association of Chiefs of
Police, Kansas Peace Officers Association, and Kansas
Sheriffs Association provided proponent testimony, stating
generally that with the availability of naloxone as an over-the-
counter item, law enforcement agencies of all sizes have an
extra expense of utilizing a medical director or pharmacist
under the EOA protocol. By eliminating that requirement, law
enforcement agencies of all sizes may be able to procure and
readily use emergency opioid antagonists. The two private
citizens spoke of their personal experiences with law
enforcement not having an emergency opioid antagonist to
use as the first responders to arrive at the scene of a drug
overdose.
No other testimony was provided.
The House Committee removed the amendments in the
bill as introduced that would have excluded law enforcement
from the definitions of “first responder” and “first responder
agency” for this purpose, added language specifically
exempting a law enforcement agency from the EOA
protocol’s requirement to use a physician medical director or
a licensed pharmacist, and reduced the amount of the annual
2- 2159 transfer from the SGF to the Fund from $4.0 million to
$500,000.
Fiscal Information
According to the fiscal note prepared by the Division of
the Budget on the bill, as introduced, the Office of the
Attorney General states that any additional workload created
by the bill would be absorbed within existing resources. The
Judicial Branch, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, and the
Kansas Highway Patrol state that the bill would not have a
fiscal effect on agency operations.
First responder; law enforcement officer; Emergency Opioid Antagonist Protocol;
Board of Pharmacy; Emergency Opioid Antagonists Assistance Grant Fund; opioids
3- 2159