Prescription tracking: Too invasive?

Prescription tracking: Too invasive?


With prescription drug use at its highest in Nevada, and with overdoses from painkillers, including methadone, on the rise, prescription tracking programs are emerging all over the country.

Nevada was the first to implement such a program. The Nevada Pharmacy Board has developed a database listing every prescription written in Nevada for certain medications. The listing includes the provider and the patient, and is designed to prevent drug-seeking patients from obtaining prescriptions from multiple doctors.

To some, the potential privacy invasion from such programs is too invasive.

The Concord Monitor published an editorial on August 24 detailing concerns with the programs:

http://reno.injuryboard.com/fda-and-prescription-drugs/prescription-tracking-too-invasive.aspx?googleid=246936

Tracking addictive substances to reveal drug seekers who use more than one physician for scrips is a good idea because these are people who fall into either of two categories: people with undertreated pain and people who are running into trouble with their pain well controlled.

Both groups need to be evaluated and treated.

Neither group needs a bunch of goons trying to practice medicine without a license and simply throwing them into jail without asking why they're doctor shopping.

End the drug war. Then we can institute tracking to identify patients with problems.