Florida to track users of legal drugs [priv]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Florida to track [legal] drug users
Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2004 17:38:27 -0400
From: Stephen Cobb <editor () privacyforbusiness com>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
References: <407CD237.3020003 () well com>

Declan

My wife already lives in almost constant pain because, thanks to the DoJ,
most Florida doctors are too scared to prescribe adequate pain medication.
Now it seems that, thanks to an unholy alliance of Jeb Bush, John Ashcroft,
and a big drug company, her use of medication will be tracked by the State
police.

Stephen Cobb

State would keep list of controlled substance users under bill
By David Royse, Associated Press, April 15, 2004

http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/florida/article/0,2071,NPDN_14910_2809288,00.html

TALLAHASSEE ­ State government would create a database of everyone in
Florida who gets a prescription of certain controlled substances, under a
measure approved by a House subcommittee Wednesday.

The measure, aimed at saving lives [of selfish law-breakers who abuse
prescription drugs] and fighting fraud and backed by Gov. Jeb Bush [who
seems to have forgotten that Republicans are supposed to be in favor of
less government intrusion], passed over the objections of a few who said it
could violate people's privacy.

Supporters say the sometimes deadly abuse of addictive prescription drugs
[by law-breaking idiots] is fast becoming an epidemic, and they cite a
desperate need to slow the spiraling costs of government health care
programs beset by fraud [I dare them to prove pain pills are a significant
factor in health care costs].
...
Some lawmakers opposed the (CS HB 397) because it may give government
another way to track what people do and because medications can be a very
private matter. Rep. Rene Garcia, R-Hialeah, likened it to Communist
practices in Cuba. "My parents fled a Communist country because everything
was being centralized," Garcia said. "A centralized database, knowing what
they're taking, what they're not taking, is a little concerning to me."
...
The database would only keep track of people who get prescriptions for
certain controlled substances, including narcotics like pain relievers
oxycodone or Percocet, or the anti-anxiety drug Xanax. Children under 16
would not be included in the database [the same legislature that is pushing
parental notification of minor abortions wants to exempt a key group of
drug abusers?].

The U.S. Department of Justice, which is pushing such databases nationwide,
would also help fund the database startup [as part of the ever-expanding
DoJ monitoring of our private lives--how long before the drug data gets
into CAPS II?] as would [and this is just as scary] Purdue Pharma, the
maker of OxyContin that has pledged $2 million toward the program ­ an
offer that expires in July. The pledge was made in November 2002 when the
state dropped an investigation into how the company marketed OxyContin.
......

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