COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE

FOR

Senate Bill No. 526

(By Senators Stollings, Foster, Jenkins and Kessler (Acting President))

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[Originating in the Committee on Health and Human Resources;

reported February 23, 2011.]

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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated §16-4C-24, relating to allowing State Police, police, sheriffs, fire and emergency service providers to possess Naloxone to administer in suspected narcotic drug overdoses.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

    That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated §16-4C-24, to read as follows:

CHAPTER 16. PUBLIC HEALTH.

ARTICLE 4C. EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES ACT.

§16-4C-24. Administration of an opioid antidote in an emergency               situation.

    (a) For purposes of this section:

    (1) "Opioid antagonist" means naloxone hydrochloride that is

approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration for the

treatment of a drug overdose by intranasal administration.

    (2) "Opioid overdose prevention and treatment training program" or "program" means any program operated or approved by the Office of Emergency Medical Services to train individuals to prevent, recognize, and respond to an opiate overdose, and that provides, at a minimum, training in all of the following:

    (A) The causes of an opiate overdose;

    (B) Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation;

    © How to contact appropriate emergency medical services; and

    (D) How to administer an opioid antagonist.

    (b) A licensed health care provider who is permitted by law to prescribe an opioid antagonist may, if acting with reasonable care, prescribe and subsequently dispense or distribute an opioid antagonist in conjunction with an opioid overdose prevention and treatment training program, without being subject to civil liability or criminal prosecution. This immunity shall apply to the licensed health care provider even when the opioid antagonist is administered by and to someone other than the person to whom it is prescribed.

    © Emergency responders covered under this article, and other initial responders, specifically State Police, police, sheriffs and volunteer and paid firefighters, who are not otherwise licensed to administer an opioid antagonist may administer an opioid antagonist in an emergency without fee if the emergency responder or initial responder has received the training specified in paragraph (2) of subsection (a) and believes in good faith that the other person is experiencing a drug overdose. The emergency responder or initial responder identified in this subsection is not, as a result of his or her acts or omissions, liable for any violation of any professional licensing statute, or subject to any criminal prosecution arising from or related to the unauthorized practice of medicine or the possession of an opioid antagonist.

    (d) For each opioid overdose and prevention and treatment training program that the Office of Emergency Medical Services operates or recognizes as an approved program, data shall be collected and reported by January 1, 2015 to the Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources Accountability. The data collected and reported includes:

    (1) Number of training programs operating in the local health jurisdiction;

    (2) Number of individuals who have received a prescription for, and training to administer, an opioid antagonist.

    (3) Number of opioid antagonist doses prescribed;

    (4) Number of opioid antagonist doses administered;

    (5) Number of individuals who received the opioid antagonist who were properly revived;

    (6) Number of individuals who received the opioid antagonist who were not revived;

    (7) Number of adverse events associated with an opioid overdose prevention and treatment training program, including a description of the adverse events.

    (e) The Office of Emergency Medical Services is granted the authority to promulgate rules establishing the standards for certification and approval of opioid overdose prevention and treatment training programs in accordance with chapter 29A, article 3.

    NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to allow police, fire and emergency service providers, to possess Naloxone to administer in suspected narcotic drug overdoses.

    Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.

    §16-4C-24 is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.