Kansas lawmakers have advanced a bill that would expand access to drugs that stop opioid overdoses as health care providers and law enforcement officers grapple with a national epidemic.
The House gave unanimous first-round approval to the bill Thursday. The measure would allow first responders to administer the drugs to people experiencing overdose symptoms after taking opioid drugs.
Johnson County EMS currently uses Narcan. However, police, pharmacists, and bystanders would be allowed to administer the drug with no legal repercussion if the bill passes. The bill is now headed to the senate.
Narcan is not just for people addicted to drugs, it can also be used for people who accidentally take too much of their prescribed medication. This scenario happened Friday morning in Johnson County.
"There is an elderly gentleman who is prescribed morphine and took too much of it this morning and caused him to have a syncopal episode or pass out," said paramedic Steve Koehler.
"We have really no framework or way to train, educate, or inform family members, bystanders, the local public law enforcement on the administration of naloxone, so if this passes it sets up a framework so they can administer this potentially lifesaving drug,” said Johnson County EMS medical director Ryan Jacobsen.
"This is a Band-Aid fix this does not solve the opioid addition issue the opioid epidemic that is going on across the entire country,” said Jacobsen.
In 2012 there were 938 overdoses in Johnson County due to substance abuse. The drug Narcan was used 268 times in Johnson County in 2016, up from 19 percent in 2013.
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Ali Hoxie can be reached at ali.hoxie@kshb.com
