Kansas Attorney General Partners With Emily's Hope to Place Naloxone Boxes in 40 Schools Statewide

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach is leading a first-of-its-kind statewide effort to saturate college campuses with free naloxone, partnering with the nonprofit Emily's Hope and behavioral health provider DCCCA to install overdose reversal kits in 40 schools by the end of March. The initiative responds to more than 2,000 fentanyl deaths in Kansas and mirrors successful models from South Dakota, where Emily's Hope pioneered anonymous public naloxone distribution through government partnerships.

Washburn University in Topeka became the 27th location to receive a naloxone box on March 9, joining a roster that includes the University of Kansas, Kansas State, Wichita State, and two dozen community colleges across the state. Each weatherproof box contains multiple naloxone kits—nasal spray formulations of the opioid antagonist that can reverse respiratory depression within minutes—freely accessible to students, staff, faculty, and the general public without identification or paperwork.

"The idea is to get these as widely distributed in Kansas as possible," Kobach said at Washburn's presentation ceremony. "I carry one in my truck, I encourage everyone to have one in their glove box or your purse or whatever because you never know. You might be that one person at the gas station, at the supermarket, wherever who is able to help."

The program operates under the Kansas Fight Addiction Grant Program, funded through opioid settlement dollars awarded to the state in litigation against pharmaceutical manufacturers. DCCCA, a Lawrence-based organization providing substance use and mental health services, handles logistics and restocking, while Emily's Hope—founded by South Dakota journalist Angela Kennecke after her daughter Emily died of a fentanyl-laced pill overdose—supplies kits and training materials.

Counterfeit Pills Driving Youth Deaths

Kobach emphasized that Kansas's fentanyl crisis increasingly affects people who never intended to use opioids. "We find that some of the victims of fentanyl are often individuals who take a pill thinking it's a Xanax or a Percocet or something they think will help them study or stay up late or increase their attention, whatever it may be," he explained. "And it's been given to them by a friend or they bought it online, and it's not. It's a counterfeit pill that's been laced with fentanyl. And that's how so many people have perished, unfortunately."

DEA data shows that nearly half of all counterfeit pills analyzed nationwide contain lethal doses of fentanyl, with college-age adults particularly vulnerable to pills marketed as benzodiazepines or stimulants. The synthetic opioid is 50 times more potent than heroin and causes rapid respiratory failure, leaving bystanders a narrow two-to-three-minute window to administer naloxone before irreversible brain damage occurs.

Kansas's box locations reflect both urban centers and rural areas where treatment infrastructure remains sparse. Fort Hays State University in western Kansas, Dodge City Community College near the Colorado border, and Colby Community College in the northwest corner all received boxes, addressing geographic disparities in overdose response capacity.

JuliAnn Mazachek, Washburn University's president, framed the initiative as both a safety measure and an educational opportunity. "Thank you for making this possible for our students, but also for our faculty and staff," she told Kobach. "We always want to be ready to serve and educate people about how we can help overcome this tragedy."

Emily's Hope Model Goes National

The Kansas deployment builds on Emily's Hope's April 2025 partnership with the South Dakota Attorney General's Office, which distributed 20,000 naloxone kits—totaling 40,000 doses—through public access boxes installed in hospitals, libraries, government buildings, and retail locations. That program, described by South Dakota officials as "first-in-the-nation" for its scale and anonymity, reported zero instances of kit misuse or vandalism during its first nine months.

Angela Kennecke, Emily's Hope's founder, has testified before Congress and met twice with White House officials to advocate for expanded public naloxone access. Her organization's K-12 substance use prevention curriculum is now piloted in multiple states, including lessons on recognizing overdose symptoms and administering naloxone without medical training.

"Time is of the essence during opioid overdoses, and naloxone is the fire extinguisher of the opioid crisis," Kennecke said when South Dakota launched its program. The same philosophy underpins Kansas's strategy: placing kits where people gather rather than requiring individuals to seek them out eliminates barriers created by stigma, transportation, or lack of awareness.

DCCCA's involvement ensures sustainability. The organization, which operates treatment centers and outpatient services across eastern Kansas, manages box restocking, monitors kit expiration dates, and collects anonymous usage data. Schools that exhaust their initial supply can reorder through DCCCA or directly from Emily's Hope, both of which provide kits at no cost thanks to settlement funding and private donations.

Kobach's office maintains a public map showing all 27 current locations, with placeholders for the final 13 installations expected by March 31. The list includes Kansas's three largest universities—KU, K-State, and Wichita State—alongside smaller institutions like Sterling College (enrollment 720) and Independence Community College (850 students), reflecting a commitment to equity over population density.

Part of Broader Harm Reduction Shift

Kansas's program arrives as state and local governments nationwide embrace harm reduction strategies once considered controversial. Massachusetts recently debated restoring naloxone cabinets at MBTA subway stations after a pilot program lapsed, while Pennsylvania's CMSU Behavioral Health is installing "naloxone newsstands" across five rural counties. California's CalRx initiative manufactures generic naloxone nasal spray at half the retail price, distributing it free to community organizations statewide.

The Attorney General's Office encourages broader participation beyond schools. Businesses, churches, libraries, and civic organizations can request boxes through Emily's Hope's website or the Kansas Fight Addiction Grant Program portal. Kobach's personal testimony—carrying naloxone in his vehicle—signals an attempt to normalize preparedness, reframing overdose response as a civic duty akin to CPR training or fire extinguisher placement.

Kansas's overdose death toll, while devastating at over 2,000 lives lost to fentanyl, represents a fraction of states like Ohio (which recorded 47% declines in opioid deaths year-over-year) or West Virginia (48.55% drop). Public health researchers attribute recent national declines to precisely the interventions Kansas is now scaling: widespread naloxone saturation, reduced barriers to buprenorphine treatment, and expanded harm reduction services.

The 40-school target marks only the beginning. Settlement funds allocated through the Kansas Fights Addiction program extend through the late 2030s, creating a long-term funding stream for continued expansion. Whether Kansas can replicate South Dakota's success—where 20,000 kits deployed in a state of 900,000 residents created one of the nation's highest per-capita naloxone availability rates—will depend on sustained political will and community buy-in.

For now, students at Washburn can walk past the new naloxone box in their campus building, a quiet reminder that preparedness, not panic, defines the state's response to a crisis that has already claimed too many young lives. As Kobach put it: "You never know. You might be that one person."