SENATE PANEL WANTS TO GIVE SHERIFFS ACCESS TO PHARMACY

RALEIGH, N.C. - County sheriffs would be allowed to review pharmacy
records while investigating the illegal use or sale of prescription
drugs under a bill that cleared a Senate committee Tuesday.

State law allows federal and State Bureau of Investigation agents,
along with certain state health regulators, to inspect prescriptions,
order forms and records of controlled substances. Sheriffs believe
they should have the same access because they are often the first
investigators in drug-related cases. "The sheriff is constitutionally
elected," said Sen. John Snow, D-Cherokee, the bill's sponsor. He said
current law "ignored where the rubber meets the road, and that's the
local sheriff's office."

The bill would allow only sheriffs _ not deputies or city police
chiefs _ to enter a pharmacy and ask for records. Proponents said such
authority would help local sheriffs investigate whether a prescription
holder may be illegally selling or obtaining prescription drugs.

Sheriffs could share the information with other law officers or in
connection with a criminal investigation or licensing board hearing.
The bill was approved by a Senate judiciary panel, and now goes to the
full Senate for consideration.

Sheriff Keith Lovin of Cherokee County in far western North Carolina
testified in favor of the bill Tuesday, saying the closest State
Bureau of Investigation office is two hours east in Waynesville. Lovin
said illegal drugs have overwhelmed his county, where an average of
one fatal drug overdose has occurred each month for the past five
years. Lovin also said he has received reports of elderly people being
attacked for their prescriptions.

"It's affecting my people at all levels," Lovin said. "(Pharmacists)
see these people coming in and they're abusing the system." But a
lobbyist representing the state's pharmacists said the bill would
burden already overworked druggists working behind the counter. Andy
Ellen, representing the North Carolina Retail Merchants Association,
said an agency within the state's Department of Health and Human
Services is creating a database that will allow SBI agents, physicians
and regulators to access prescription information without traveling to
a pharmacy or hospital. The database should make it easier to examine
whether a prescription drug user has stolen a doctor's prescription
pad or is "doctor shopping" by deceiving multiple physicians in order
to obtain overlapping prescriptions, Ellen said.

Allowing only state officials access provides "some separation from
the local community," he said.

Sen. Austin Allran, R-Catawba, worried an unethical sheriff could
abuse the power. "You're going to have somebody who has the right to
snoop around people's records," Allran said.

Lovin said voters can throw out sheriffs who mishandle the records.
"The people who elect me make me accountable," he said. Lawmakers have
passed bills in recent years designed to help local sheriffs combat
drug problems, including increasing penalties for people who produce
methamphetamines.