Sheriffs in North Carolina, through the Sheriff’s Association, recently pushed the idea that police should
have access to the computer records of anyone taking prescription painkillers or other controlled
substances in our state.  Their rationale is the same old tired refrain: If police can look at these
records, they will be able to make more drug arrests and curb what they call “the growing problem of
prescription drug abuse.”

Forgive me, but letting police have access to people’s medical records for any reason, without proper
safeguards is exactly what we don’t need.  Obviously.  I get chills up and down my spine just thinking
about Sheriff John Brown sitting in his police car with a doughnut and a coffee, methodically scrolling
down the list of prescription drug “perps” looking for someone to arrest.

Almost every single one of these people has a legitimate right to his/her prescription medicine which
has been appropriately prescribed by a licensed and regulated psychiatrist or other physician, nurse
or physician’s assistant.  To uproot and destroy the rights to privacy of ten thousand law-abiding
citizens as a means of catching one prescription drug abuser is, of course, insane.  There are a lot of police
techniques that would be effective in catching or preventing crime, but are nonetheless not permitted
by the rules of a civilized society.  For instance, the police could catch large numbers of criminals that
are now going scot free by the use of systematic door to door searches of all of our private homes by
storm troopers!  But at last glance, law enforcement is still not allowed to use that particular method of
crime control.  Thank God for those visionary founding fathers and that pesky Bill of Rights!

There is another, serious reason to resist the Sheriffs on this matter.  Allowing police to search
prescription records would further chill our psychiatrists’ and other mental health professionals’ ability
to prescribe the medications to their patients that are the most effective drugs for illness and pain.
There is already a near-hysteria in this country surrounding the use of controlled substances to manage
pain, for instance, that makes it difficult or impossible for physicians to properly treat their patients
without inordinate scrutiny by regulators.

These are doctors with a job to do – let’s allow them to do it.  Let’s not make things worse by
broadening the police power in this case.  The police can still go about their work of solving and
preventing crime by the use of legitimate tools at their disposal without violating the rights of innocent
people and the rest of us should work toward a calming of nerves about prescription drug use so that
people can get the drugs they need to live the best lives they can.