more overreaching
December 6th, 2007
Opinion, Vermont
Since we’re on the subject of what our legislators might be doing to improve our lives, I suspect we will have the “prescription” committee appointed this session. Apparently the “war on drugs” has taken a new turn – a war on your drugs. The Vermont State Police have decided that they will get all pharmacy records for your prescriptions just to be sure they know what each and everyone of us is all about. So if you happen to have a few scripts for Percocet under your name, the next time you get stopped for that burned out tail light, they’ll type in your driver ID on their mobile computer and viola ! – they may have – legally – probable cause to take some blood just to make sure you’re not under the “influence”. Of course, since you and me have nothing to hide, this shouldn’t bother any of us. We all take our pain killers legally, right?
Beginning with this post at Green Mountain Daily, it spread in our local blogsphere, such as TrueVermont and found its way on to the national blogsphere at the Huffington Post, as all this has caused quite a stir. But a quick Google news search gave us the “reliable” Rutland Herald article by Daniel Barlow that certainly puts my mind at ease…
The controversy comes at a time when the Department of Health is preparing to launch the Vermont Prescription Monitoring System — a massive statewide database that would track the disbursement of medications. About 30 other states operate similar programs. …
Hogle said he supports the creation of the database as a way to stop the spread of prescription drugs — now the leading drug-related cause of death in Vermont — from reaching the street, where they are sold illegally.
“The people gaming the system need to be stopped,” he said.
So just who is it that is gaming the system?
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