DRUG SCREEN PLAN NEEDLESS, WASTEFUL

In opposing the establishment of a desperately needed statewide
prescription drug database that would reduce crime and save lives,
Gov. Rick Scott has cited misguided, ill-informed and unfounded
privacy concerns for patient confidentiality. Yet the governor has no
problem calling for mandatory drug tests and random drug screens for
as many as 100,000 innocent state workers while invading their
privacy at a cost of millions of dollars. The lack of intellectual
honesty here is remarkable.

Scott's intrusion into the private lives of dedicated state employees
with no evidence they are illegally using drugs is wrong, ill
conceived and likely unconstitutional. But that didn't stop the
governor from issuing an executive order last week requiring all new
hires in agencies he controls to be drug tested -- and for current
employees to be tested at least four times a year. State agencies
already can require employees to be tested when they are suspected of
using illegal drugs, so there is no safety issue here.

The governor's fuzzy reasoning is inexplicable. Florida has become a
laughingstock for its dubious reputation as the "pill mill" capital
of the nation, with more than 2,000 lives lost every year through the
illegal dispensation of prescription drugs such as oxycodone and
Xanax. A prescription drug database, paid for by the drug companies
themselves, would go a long way toward addressing the problem by
making it more difficult for patients to doctor shop for their drugs.
It also would make it easier to crack down on unscrupulous physicians
who prescribe the drugs without regard to their medical need. But
Scott remains opposed to this lifesaving program.

Yet the governor would impose pointless and invasive scrutiny on
state employees, requiring workers to submit to random drug
screenings without any evidence that drug abuse is rampant among the
state work force. The cost to the state for the $35 random screening
tests for current workers, a practice that a federal court ruled in
2004 was unconstitutional, will run into the millions of dollars
while Scott calls for spending cuts in areas such as education.

Scott is ignoring his responsibility to address a pervasive and
deadly drug epidemic -- and now ordering a constitutionally suspect
approach to tackle a drug problem among state workers that doesn't
appear to exist. He issued the order on the same day legislation was
filed to fulfill his pledge to require thousands of welfare
recipients to pass drug tests. If all of the governor's drug-testing
plans come to pass, the drug screening business in Florida should be
booming. So Floridians should not forget that Scott founded Solantic,
a chain of walk-in health care clinics, and has placed his ownership
into his wife's trust. Solantic promotes its drug screen testing
services on its website.