The legislation would add law enforcement to a list of entities permitted to stock the anaphylaxis antidote. (Hal Brown for New Jersey Monitor)
The Senate Law and Public Safety Committee on Monday approved legislation that would allow police departments to stock epinephrine and provide it to law enforcement personnel trained to use the anaphylaxis antidote.
The bill, which passed unanimously, would explicitly add police departments to the list of entities permitted to stock epinephrine under a 2016 law allowing businesses employing someone authorized to administer epinephrine to purchase and dispense it.
“It’s time that we encourage law enforcement to carry these because police officers are often the first ones on the scene, frequently by a number of minutes, which can make all the difference between life and death in the case of a severe allergic reaction,” said bill sponsor Sen. Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth).
The senator said the bill was spurred by an incident in his legislative district, where police were called to respond to a child facing a severe allergic reaction after an epinephrine injector failed to deploy.
Once on the scene, police told the constituent they did not believe they were permitted to carry epinephrine.
“We should change that,” O’Scanlon said. “The child was OK, ultimately, because someone else happened to have one, but tragedy could’ve occurred.”
Epinephrine is a prescription drug, but state law allows universities and some others to stock it to respond to emergencies where no medical professional is available.
As introduced, the bill would have required police departments to train each officer on the use of epinephrine and provide them with at least one dose of it.
Lawmakers amended the bill to its current form to forestall constitutional challenges over funding, O’Scanlon said. Since 1996, New Jersey’s constitution has required the state to provide funding for any mandate it creates.
Absent an appropriation, a bill that would require police departments to provide epinephrine and training to each of their officers would likely be struck down as an unconstitutional unfunded mandate.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.