DEA Thinks IT Has The Right To Look At YOUR Drug Prescriptions WITHOUT A WARRANT

[Segami]

ACLU:

The Drug Enforcement Administration thinks people have “no constitutionally protected privacy interest” in their confidential prescription records, according to a brief filed last month in federal court. That disconcerting statement comes in response to an ACLU lawsuit challenging the DEA’s practice of obtaining private medical information without a warrant. The ACLU has just filed its response brief, explaining to the court why the DEA’s position is both startling and wrong.

We represent four patients and a physician in Oregon whose confidential prescription records are contained in a state database that tracks prescriptions for certain drugs. The database, called the Oregon Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP), was intended to be a public health tool to help physicians avoid drug overdoses and abuse in their patients. Despite a state law requiring law enforcement to obtain a probable cause warrant from a judge before requesting records from the PDMP, the DEA has been requesting records using administrative subpoenas, which do not involve judicial authorization or probable cause. Our clients object to the DEA’s warrantless access to the PDMP because their prescription records reveal deeply private information about their health and medical history, including their gender identity (two of our clients are transgender men taking testosterone as part of their transition from female to male sex) and mental illness (one client takes medication to treat anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorders).

cont'


https://www.aclu.org/blog/technology-and-liberty-national-security/dea-thinks-you-have-no-constitutionally-protected

SLASHDOT:

...Oregon mandates that pharmacies report information on people receiving certain drugs to a centralized database (ostensibly to "...help people work with their health care providers and pharmacists to know what medications are best for them.&quot . State law does allow law enforcement to access the records, but only with a warrant. The DEA, however, thinks that, because the program is public, a citizen is knowingly disclosing that information to a third party thus losing all of their privacy rights (since you can always just opt out of receiving medical care) thanks to the Controlled Substances Act. The ACLU and medical professionals (PDF) don't think there's anything voluntary about receiving medical treatment, and that medical ethics override other concerns.


http://science.slashdot.org/story/13/09/25/1318218/dea-argues-oregonians-have-no-protected-privacy-interest-in-prescription-records

[Mnemosyne]

1. Will this crap ever end? Losing my voice yelling. nt

[Jackpine Radical]

2. The question for me has always been--

Do they snoop in order to enforce drug laws, or do they enforce drug laws in order to snoop (and confiscate property and jail dissidents, etc.).

[Downwinder]

3. What is all the HIPPA paperwork for?

More security theater to give you a false sense of security and make it more difficult to get your own medical records.

[FiveGoodMen]

4. The DEA needs to be disbanded.

[nashville_brook]

5. great line: "since you can always just opt out of receiving medical care"

[gopiscrap]

6. Fuck that!

[bemildred]

7. Right, that's their position, that you are not competent to decide what you can posess or consume.nt