DRUG DATABASE ISN'T JUSTIFIED

The hysteria over the powerful painkiller OxyContin seems to have died out.
Unfortunately, the same can't be said for invasive and unnecessary
legislative schemes meant to combat prescription drug abuse.

A bill that would create a state database of prescriptions died in the
recent legislative session, as it should have. But Gov. Jeb Bush wants to
revive it. That's a bad idea. The proposed legislation jeopardizes the
privacy of thousands of law-abiding Floridians and makes doctors leery of
writing prescriptions for patients who legitimately need them.

Under the proposed bill, doctors and pharmacists would be required to
submit patient information to a state database whenever they prescribe, or
fill a prescription for, one of dozens of drugs considered "controlled
substances." Any drug listed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as
Schedule II, III or IV (also known as "controlled substances") would be
included. Health-care workers who don't submit the information would face a
$1,000 fine or a year in jail.

State officials argue that they need this provision to keep patients from
"doctor-shopping," gathering prescriptions for the same powerful drug from
multiple doctors. But Florida law enforcement agencies already have
measures that allow them to address real cases of abuse. While the proposed
database could make it easier to identify suspicious patterns, it would
definitely make doctors more gun-shy about writing prescriptions even when
they're needed -- and as a result, people in legitimate pain suffer
needlessly. That trend has already been seen in other states that have
similar databases.

The proposed database also would cover prescriptions for dozens of drugs
that have never caused a single death -- such as Ritalin, a stimulant
commonly prescribed to children diagnosed with attention deficit disorder.

The information is supposed to be kept private -- provided only to the
state Department of Health and exempt from public disclosure. But there's
no guarantee that the privacy protections won't be weakened in the future
- -- and there's no reason the state should have this information in the
first place.

One likely motivation behind Bush's urgency is the $2 million subsidy
promised by Purdue Pharma, the company that makes OxyContin. The money is
part of a settlement over the company's marketing practices and is to be
used for creating the database. If the state doesn't set up a monitoring
system by July 2004, most of that money evaporates.

Bush shouldn't be sorry to see it go. The ongoing costs to operate this
system -- not only in dollars, but in lost privacy and increased suffering
- -- is too high.