Police State: Sheriffs Want Access to Medical Records of Drug Users

[marmar]

via AlterNet:




Posted by johncole at 11:49 am
September 9, 2010

Police State: Sheriffs Want Access to Medical Records of Drug Users
Posted by johncole on @ 11:49 am


This post first appeared on Balloon Juice.

At what point do we just give in and accept that we are a fascist state:

Sheriffs in North Carolina want access to state computer records identifying anyone with prescriptions for powerful painkillers and other controlled substances.The state sheriff’s association pushed the idea Tuesday, saying the move would help them make drug arrests and curb a growing problem of prescription drug abuse. But patient advocates say opening up people’s medicine cabinets to law enforcement would deal a devastating blow to privacy rights.

Allowing sheriffs’ offices and other law enforcement officials to use the state’s computerized list would vastly widen the circle of people with access to information on prescriptions written for millions of people. As it stands now, doctors and pharmacists are the main users.

Gee. It probably would make it easier to make drug arrests if you had a list of people using prescription drugs. You could go to their house, knock in their door, and you are probably guaranteed to find drugs! And then you could seize any loose cash, the drugs, and any property you think might have been involved in the drug use, call their abode a “crack den” and seize that too. And then it is up to the person using a legally prescribe substance to prove they are innocent to get their property back.

At some point, people are going to realize that the war on drugs and the war on terrorism are actually declarations of war on the rights of the American citizen. Can anyone anywhere give me one good reason why some fascist cop in North Carolina needs to know what my doctor prescribed to me? Just one.

And it goes without saying the kind of negative effect this will have on pain management. This is just another attempt to intimidate doctors.


http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/09/09/police-state-sheriffs-want-access-to-medical-records-of-drug-users/

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. HIPPA anyone?

[Xithras]

4. HIPAA has a law enforcement exemption

The law enforcement exemption is pretty broad, and likely wouldn't impact this kind of inquiry.

You'd be better off fighting it on 4th Amendment grounds. Certainly medical records and prescriptions should qualify as "papers" that are protected from warrantless searches.

[Swamp Rat]

2. I want video cameras trained on police 24/7

Police need to be monitored around the clock because they cannot be trusted.

[marmar]

3. Exactly !!!

nt

[hughee99]

5. I was surprised how many DUers didn't seem to have an issue with

law enforcement getting easy access to medical records with little or no probable cause (search on any of the limpballs/doctor shopping threads from way back). I 100% agree that this whole proposition is a ridiculous invasion of our privacy. Perhaps they should also consider making everyone's financial information available to law enforcement. I'll bet they'd solve a lot more crimes with that than medical records.

[Odin2005]

6. They are too concerned with the idiot preacher. Typical MSM: distact, distract, distract.

[cbdo2007]

7. Most likely if insurance is involved they already have a list of these people

and have tried or will try to stop the abuse themselves.

I worked for the mental health side of an insurance program once and we did regular reports of people who were over medicating. They were referred on to counselors to find out what was going on and if the use was deemed excessive they would stop paying for the meds until they got chemical dependency treatment.