republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2017/hb-2161.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Opioids; workgroup to establish guidelines for prescribing."
description: "Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Resources to convene a workgroup that shall include representatives of the Departments of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, Health, and Health Professions as well as representatives of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia and each of the Commonwealth's medical schools, dental schools, schools of pharmacy, physician assistant education programs, and nursing education programs to develop educational standards and curricula for training health care providers, including physicians, dentists, optometrists, pharmacists, physician assistants, and nurses, in the safe and appropriate use of opioids to treat pain while minimizing the risk of addiction and substance abuse. The workgroup shall report its progress and the outcomes of its activities to the Governor and the General Assembly by December 1, 2017. The bill contains an emergency clause. This bill is identical to"
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "HB 2161"
citation: "Virginia HB 2161 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Emergency Legislation", "Health", "Narcotics and Drugs", "Study Commissions", "Committees and Reports"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Todd E. Pillion"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 19
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2017-01-11"
last_action: "2017-02-23"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/25dd3e73-1498-4dae-9d56-12cf815cb132"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+HB2161"
source_hash: "a125db20e825a094f21995126364d6dc378902bb276b9f7c79657d6dd4334dbd"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia HB 2161 (2017) — Opioids; workgroup to establish guidelines for prescribing.

Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Resources to convene a workgroup that shall include representatives of the Departments of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, Health, and Health Professions as well as representatives of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia and each of the Commonwealth's medical schools, dental schools, schools of pharmacy, physician assistant education programs, and nursing education programs to develop educational standards and curricula for training health care providers, including physicians, dentists, optometrists, pharmacists, physician assistants, and nurses, in the safe and appropriate use of opioids to treat pain while minimizing the risk of addiction and substance abuse. The workgroup shall report its progress and the outcomes of its activities to the Governor and the General Assembly by December 1, 2017. The bill contains an emergency clause. This bill is identical to

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0180)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+CHAP0180)
2. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB2161ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB2161ER)
3. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17100758D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB2161)
4. **House: Printed as engrossed 17100758D-E** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB2161E)

## Votes

- Reported from Rules — **13–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Subcommittee recommends reporting with amendments — **9–0** (pass) · legislature
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **97–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Health, Welfare and Institutions with amendments — **22–0** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **39–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Todd E. Pillion — primary (person)
- Charles W. Carrico, Sr. — cosponsor (person)
- Christopher K. Peace — cosponsor (person)
- Israel D. O'Quinn — cosponsor (person)
- James A. "Jay" Leftwich — cosponsor (person)
- John J. Bell — cosponsor (person)
- Kathy J. Byron — cosponsor (person)
- Margaret B. Ransone — cosponsor (person)
- T. Scott Garrett — cosponsor (person)
- Terry G. Kilgore — cosponsor (person)
- Timothy D. Hugo — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-01-11** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17100758D `introduction`
- **2017-01-11** Referred to Committee on Health, Welfare and Institutions `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-17** Assigned HWI sub: Subcommittee #1 `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-27** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2017-01-30** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-01-30** Committee amendments agreed to
- **2017-01-30** Emergency clause added
- **2017-01-30** Engrossed by House as amended HB2161E
- **2017-01-30** Printed as engrossed 17100758D-E
- **2017-01-31** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (97-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2017-02-01** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2017-02-01** Referred to Committee on Rules `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-14** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2017-02-16** Enrolled
- **2017-02-16** Signed by Speaker
- **2017-02-17** Signed by President
- **2017-02-17** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on 2/17/17
- **2017-02-17** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, February 24, 2017
- **2017-02-23** Approved by Governor-Chapter 180 (effective 2/23/17) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/25dd3e73-1498-4dae-9d56-12cf815cb132`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).