Local police who are investigating the illegal distribution of powerful painkillers will have access to a state database tracking prescriptions for the drugs under rules approved by health officials last week. The expansion of the Prescription Monitoring Program comes just as local departments are being asked to take on more responsibility for the drug cases.
The State Police last month closed an eight-member drug diversion unit created in 1974 to investigate illegal distribution of prescription drugs, to narrow a $3 million budget gap.
Comments
outrageous intrusion into the civil rights of the sick and dying in Massachusetts! The local police now know what medicine you're taking, and who's taking painkillers?
Very similar to Nazi Germany - they also took away the civil rights of the sick and weak, seeing those members of society as unworthy and often sending them to concentration camps with the other scapegoats.
Also interesting to note that this monumental change in the civil rigths protections and medical privacy of sick and injured people was made without any legislative review, participation, or accountability by elected officials. In true "Public Health" style.
You can see how well "Public Health" is doing in the US - with our obesity, diabetes and cancer epidemics, all worse than our peer nations around the world. American public health is an unmitigated disaster, and yet it churns away, attacking the privacy and sanctity of the most vulnerable among us. Disgraceful.
I might add that, if reading the Globe and other newspapers is any indication, local police, firemen, and public works employees are frequently arrested for abusing and distributing opiate painkillers. They have absolutely no right or medical qualification to intrude into the health care of American citizens.
Frequently arrested? Care to illustrate?