ST. PAUL — Minnesota pharmacy regulators declined Wednesday to set a pioneering policy sought by death-penalty opponents that would explicitly bar the manufacture of lethal drugs for use in executions elsewhere.

The state Board of Pharmacy put the request aside without voting on it. Its leaders said they saw little need to be dragged into an emotional debate when they weren’t aware of any cases in which Minnesota pharmacists supplied execution drugs. They say that possibility is remote and likely would run afoul of existing law.

“We haven’t had the death penalty in Minnesota in 100 years,” said board president Stuart Williams. “This is not an issue that is confronting any of the pharmacies or pharmacists in Minnesota.”

A coalition of advocacy groups seeking the formal policy chose Minnesota — and will head next to other no-execution states like Wisconsin — because they are looking for a sympathetic launching pad for a restriction they hope will catch on. Their goal is to deny capital punishment states vital ingredients for putting condemned inmates to death.

Several drugmakers, including many abroad, have stopped selling drugs common in lethal injection. So death-penalty states have turned to compounding pharmacies for substitutes. Some won’t disclose where they get the drugs, leaving open the possibility that they’re coming from other states.