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Jeb Bush's Latest Assault on Privacy

By Jeralyn, Section Civil Liberties
Posted on Mon Apr 12, 2004 at 07:26:31 PM EST
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If you think that the prescription drugs you take are a personal, private matter between you and your doctor and maybe your insurance company, and you live in Florida, you might want to move because Jeb Bush has a different idea:

A proposal Gov. Jeb Bush is championing to create a massive electronic tracking system of who is prescribing and who is using prescription drugs is in trouble in the Florida Legislature. With three weeks left in the 2004 lawmaking session, Bush is doing high-pressure lobbying to persuade leaders of his own party about the merits of the database. It could allow doctors, designated medical assistants and pharmacists to look up online the pharmacy records of patients over the age of 17 to ensure they haven't been shopping for multiple prescriptions.

Every pharmacy record for certain classes of potentially addictive drugs, such as anxiety-fighting Xanax, mood-changing Valium and painkilling OxyContin, would be monitored.

Happily, some lawmakers are balking at the project because of its cost: $2.8 million a year. But, then the news gets worse. Oxycontin has offered to pony up $2 million for the cost. What does it get in exchange?

The agreement allows the drug maker to claim credit for funding the creation of a new computerized system that will be made available to every other state in the nation -- without charge.

Among those opposed to the bill is Joe Negron (R-Stuart):

"This is not an area where the government needs to be involved," said Negron. "My constituents aren't asking for more government, more regulation, less freedom and less privacy. This [database] does all that." Negron says "Orwellian dimensions" to the proposal have prompted other lawmakers to tell him about concerns over "the erosion of civil liberties that this bill represents."

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