PRESCRIPTION-MONITORING BILL JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED

Every year, thousands of Floridians lose their lives using legal drugs
- - many of which have been obtained illegally. Over the past few years,
Florida has seen a high demand for prescription drugs on the street,
where the profit margin is high. For many years, Florida has failed to
pass a prescription-monitoring bill due to cost, effectiveness and
privacy issues.

Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, and I are sponsoring legislation
(House Bill 143/Senate Bill 614) which meets these objectives head-on.
By using a biometric system, input can be made on a real-time basis,
so attempts to fill multiple prescriptions of controlled substances
would fail. This anonymous controlled substance monitoring is based
upon patients who are identified only through individual biometrics
linked to a randomly generated alphanumeric code.

Notwithstanding the assertions in a Post story that only one company
could qualify for this work, Michael Cesanano, a well-respected
intellectual property attorney, indicates that many companies have the
capability of offering controlled-substance security systems that are
effective, relatively inexpensive and protect individual privacy.

REP. Carl J. Domino

District 83, Jupiter