SOME SEE DRUG DATABASE AS AN INVASION OF PRIVACY

Patrick Blair, retired Madison County farmer, said "whoa" when he heard the
state is planning to put people's drug prescriptions in a database in order
to prevent abuse. He called his local legislator and the governor to complain.

"I don't like government doing that," said Blair, 63, who describes himself
as a conservative Republican. "You're doing it for the best of intentions,
but I've been around long enough to know that's not the way it works.
People get in who're not supposed to."

At the crossroads marked "Privacy Rights" and "Another Computer Database
Ahead," the 2004 Legislature is marching down both paths.

Floridians consider privacy so important they voted to put a special
protection in the state constitution. And Republican leaders are tireless
advocates of less government. Yet at the same time, the GOP-controlled
Legislature is prohibiting the creation of a database of citizens who own
guns, it's pushing to create a database of who's dispensing and receiving
prescriptions.

It would be a felony punishable by a $5,000 fine and five years for a
citizen to peek at the drug database illegally or to create a firearms
registry. But there would be a $5 million penalty for any government agency
collecting a list of gun owners.

Privacy advocates warn that information can be collected, stored and shared
with such velocity today.

"The need for a consciousness of the effect on privacy is much greater than
it was in the past," said Jay Stanley, the American Civil Liberties Union's
spokesman on technology issues, "because the world has sped up from the
horse-and-buggy days to the Daytona 500 as to what can be done with
information."

Rise in Abuse-Related Deaths

Behind the interest in a drug database is a surge in abuse-related deaths.
Of about 3,300 Florida deaths last year in which prescription drugs were
present, the drug was identified as the primary cause of death in 1,825
cases, said Jim McDonough, director of Florida's drug-control office.

Reducing prescription-drug abuse is a priority of the President's National
Drug Control Strategy, which is pushing for more states to join the 15 that
already have prescription-monitoring programs.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 25 years ago in favor of New York collecting
information on so-called Schedule II drugs, the most potent prescription
drugs, including morphine and now OxyContin. One justice predicted the day
would come when the issue would need to be considered again.

The bill passed by a Florida House committee last week, which has a
companion bill in the Senate, would create a statewide database of all
prescriptions for potentially addictive drugs such as Xanax, Librium and
codeine. Doctors and pharmacists could look up patients to see whether
they're getting multiple prescriptions. Law enforcers could use it to
investigate patients or practitioners for fraud.

Tallahassee pharmacist Stanya Witt is skeptical. She thinks most deaths
caused by legal drugs involve OxyContin, a brand name for a powerful
painkiller produced by Purdue Pharma, which will pay Florida $2 million to
help develop the drug database.

Legislators "are really overstepping the bounds of decency and science,"
Wirt said, suggesting that many drugs going into the database, such as
Valium, are not lethal even at high doses. "This is a response to keep
(OxyContin) on the market while we're spending millions to monitor drugs
that pose zero threat."

McDonough, director of Florida's drug control office, said medical examiner
reports document 136 deaths in the first half of 2003 from the chemical
found in OxyContin.

Having to 'Draw the Line'

Some lawmakers see no conflict between saying "yea" to the drug database
and "nay" to any gun database.

Sen. Durrell Peaden, R-Crestview, is a retired doctor and his chamber's
sponsor of the gun legislation. He heard that some South Florida sheriffs
wanted to start a gun registry, "and it's reached the point where you've
got to draw the line. It reminds you of Nazi Germany or the Communist types."

With the drug database, he said, "you've got a different argument here. ..
Patients' rights are going to be protected," and abuse and fraud can be
stopped.

Rep. Sandra Adams, R-Orlando, a former investigator with the Orange
County's Sheriff's Office, is also against the gun list but for the drug
database.

"Law enforcement doesn't need a gun registry," Adams said. In contrast, she
views the drug database as a "tool for everyone," from the family
practitioner trying to prevent a patient from "doc shopping" to the
pharmacist able to see whether the patient is taking a risky combination of
drugs.

Law enforcers would be forbidden to look at the database only for a
specific investigation involving a violation of the law.

Misuse of Databases

Florida's experience with databases shows they can be vulnerable to misuse.
Normally public information such as street addresses now can be stricken
from one's driver's license and driving records because of the potential
for stalking.

Florida's HIV/AIDS patient registry was breached in the mid-1990s by a
Department of Health employee. That registry has included names, addresses
and the diagnosing doctor since 1983. Law-enforcement agencies have no
access to it. Even under subpoena, "we're not able to divulge the
information," said Tom Liberti, HIV/AIDS program bureau chief.

Like the ACLU, Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center
in Washington, D.C., has concerns about a prescription database: "Medical
information can be misused for employment and insurance determination. Most
people feel facts in their private medical records could be stigmatizing."

As for Blair, the retired Madison County farmer, the legislation has him
questioning his political leanings. "I was a lifelong Democrat until two
years ago," he said. "I changed to the Republican 'cause they were for
government leaving people alone unless it's necessary. As I told the
governor's office, I might change back."