per Odum's post from yesterday:
GMD has learned that State Police representatives are going to Vermont Pharmacies and demanding complete dumps of all information about patients with Schedule II prescriptions (the class of medications that include prescription drugs with street value). After talking to a few pharmacists, I found one in Franklin County that confirmed they had been approached, and had been advised by the state that they did, indeed need to comply with the request. Needless to say, he wasn't too happy about it.
What's even more disturbing? When I asked if he knew of any other pharmacies that were being mined for data in this way, he responded that it was his understanding that this was a process that was to take place across the state.
So here's what we've found since:
- it appears as though this is a broad-reaching sweep of medical records. I.e., if you receive schedule II (restricted narcotic) medications and you also receive Prozac or Viagra or anything else that you thought was private, you were wrong;
- there appears to be no mechanism in place to notify people when their records have been turned over to state police;
- there appears to be no mechanism in place to warn people that their records may be turned over to state police.
This does not come without its irony. As Doug Hoffer posted in the comments at GMD:
the state should NOT be carrying out warrantless searches. And pharmacists should not be required to participate. Indeed, this is happening at the same time the state is considering a suit against the phone companies for turning over records to Homeland Security.
We are definitely through the rabbit hole.
But it turns out there's an interesting background to this story. A few weeks ago, Vermont Public Radio produced a piece about violent crime and drug use. Some choice quotes:
...Vermont police are also seeing enormous problems with illegal pharmaceuticals, especially oxycontin.
This comes at a time when Baker says all law enforcement agencies in the state are understaffed.
(Baker) "The local police departments are carrying around 60 vacancies. The state police are carrying somewhere around 20 vacancies. And some of that's attributed to financial reasons. But in many cases it's about recruiting and the inability to find qualified individuals."
(Host) Baker says modern-day police candidates need computer and problem solving skills-skills that can earn them higher salaries in other industries.
Baker says the state has already started talking about long-term solutions to these problems. Meanwhile, he says police are working on short-term strategies to combat crime more effectively with the resources they have.
So here's the burning question: is this one of their creative solutions? Instead of targeting criminals, target everybody who has ever had contact with one of these medications?
I want to mention a couple quick items here about this before I close:
- this is a great example of the power of blogs and web-based media. We found the story. We researched the story. We got it out there. As far as I can tell so far, no one else is reporting it, which means that asking the other Vermont media why they're not covering it might be a good idea;
- this diary is built almost entirely upon the work of people who are not me. I'm posting it here to keep the story in the public view and to see if we can get broader coverage of it, but it is not my own research or work that discovered any of it.
As usual, we have choices here. Pharmacies are, as far as we can tell, complying with the state police.
As citizens, we do have the right to call our pharmacies and ask if our records have been released and to whom.
As citizens, we do have the right to sue pharmacies which release our records without valid medical purpose.
As citizens, we do have the right to speak out about this and publicize it whenever possible.
Or, of course, we can just hope nothing bad happens.
Databases aren't just places to collect information. They're places to lose information. In 2006, an employee at the Vermont State Colleges system lost a laptop containing social security numbers, payroll information and other data. This isn't just about the police collecting data. It's about an underfunded department securing it and keeping it out of the wrong hands.
So I'll end with a few questions:
Who do you think controls this data and where do you think it will be stored?
Do you think the state police have the resources to keep it all in house, or do you think they'll end up privatizing the information?
Do you think that everyone who comes into contact with this information will keep all of it private? |
