DRUG TRACKING WORTH A SHOT

Abuse of prescription drugs and illegal black markets for their sale
are harmful to individuals and society as a whole. A proposal in the
Iowa Legislature would take up the state Board of Pharmacy's
recommendation for a statewide prescription-drug monitoring program.
Similar legislation died in the Iowa Senate last year; we hope the
result will be different this time around.

The proposal would set up a computerized system that would require
pharmacies to automatically track purchases of specific addictive
prescription drugs; health professionals and state officials would
make up a committee determining the drugs on the list. The data would
include the buyers, the drugs they purchased, and the doctors who
wrote the prescriptions. Doctors and pharmacists would be allowed to
view the system at any time, and patients would be allowed to examine
their own files. Twenty-two other states have enacted similar
systems, and they are reported to have had positive results.

Prescription-drug abuse is rising across the country. The National
Office of Drug Control Policy recently called the illegal use of
pharmaceuticals a rapidly worsening problem. Drug abusers and those
who illegally sell addictive prescription drugs are able to go back
and forth among different doctors and pharmacies to obtain their
drugs because of the lack of communication and oversight among
doctors and/or pharmacies. The Iowa Department of Public Health
concluded an informal survey last month that detailed more than 100
Iowans obtaining thousands of medications in this way.

The proposed system would go a long way toward addressing these
troubles, encouraging dialogue among doctors, patients, and
pharmacists. This would ensure that physicians and pharmacists are
not being duped, and doctors will be able to more accurately discern
what prescriptions best fit their patients' needs. None among them
should see reason to decry this arrangement.

However, critics charge that the program would create situations in
which doctors would be less prone to prescribe a certain drug for
fear of charges of overprescribing medications. While these concerns
may have merit, the opposite is just as dangerous: Aggressively
doling out prescriptions of potentially dangerous narcotics is not
something medical professionals should do. Accountability is a
positive, not a negative.

Revisions made from last year's bill include a prohibition against
government officials using random searches to find patients buying
large numbers of drugs. Instead, officials would have to show
probable cause to examine the registry. This change would protect
against exploitation of the system by law-enforcement officials.

Privacy rights are a fundamental value of our society and require our
continuing respect. However, we also have an interest in ensuring
that doctors are as well-informed and patients as well-served as
possible; the proposed drug-tracking database strikes this balance
well. We hope the Legislature sees clear to enact such an intelligent solution.