Who’s already peeking in the drug database?

You thought it was between you, your doctor and your pharmacist.

Now it turns out that when you get a prescription in North Carolina, it’s also between you and dozens of bureaucrats and law enforcement officers you don’t know. The next time a doctor writes you a prescription, sheriff’s deputies — or Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officers — could show up at your door, demanding to know why you are taking certain prescriptions. And all of this without a search warrant or a subpoena.

It made national news last week when the Raleigh News & Observer reported that the state keeps a database with the name and prescription history of every North Carolinian taking a controlled substance — everything from Ambien to painkillers. Nearly a third of the people in the state are currently taking medications that would land them in the database. Worse yet, the paper reported, the state’s sheriffs are lobbying state legislators to gain access to it.

Furious readers logged pages of outraged online comments when they found out. What didn’t make the news is that police investigators and sheriff’s deputies already have access to the database anytime they want and without a subpoena or warrant.

William Bronson is the drug control unit manager at the state department of Health and Human Services, which manages and maintains the database. In a News & Record article, Bronson says that about 14 State Bureau of Investigation agents have access to the database. Deputies from all over the state regularly call them requesting information about people in the database and what they are taking.

All that is required is a case number. That sounds official and everything, but it isn’t. A number is generated every time a deputy fills out a police report. In Charlotte, where the police department rather than the sheriff’s office handles drug investigations, all that would be needed is a police report for jaywalking. Call to report that your house has been broken into or your car stolen and that generates a police report. So would a nuisance complaint against you by your neighbors for a party that got too loud.

All an officer has to do is fill out a report to generate a number and he or she could call and look up whomever they wanted. But that’s not enough, say sheriffs across the state.

Lee County Sheriff Tracy Carter tells me that sheriffs want direct access to the database because, essentially, it’s a pain to go through SBI agents who are busy and can take a day or two to get back to you.

You can see where this is going. Carter also said that in his county, prescription drug abuse has gotten so out of control that the number of deaths from overdoses exceeds those from homicides. But Martha Adams, a doctor with Duke University Health Systems, says that most people who abuse prescription drugs these days don’t get them from their doctors, but instead obtain them illegally or through the black market.

At the moment, SBI agents have to file a notice with the state attorney general’s office when they turn someone’s prescription information over to law enforcement officers. Bronson says no one has been caught using the database improperly. He also says that the health department has the ability to audit searches of the system to make sure no one is pulling information they shouldn’t be, but has never used it to check.

Carter and Bronson were defensive about the idea that the system would ever be misused. Tell that to Crystal Bowersox. As the American Idol runner-up gained fame, no fewer than eight Ohio public servants pulled private information about Bowersox from state databases that are not public. Among the bunch were law enforcement officers, one of whom was charged with fraud, and an assistant district attorney.

It’s easy to picture everyone in a small town knowing what prescriptions someone is on after bored deputies dial up the database. The potential for abuse is endless, especially when you consider that some doctors and pharmacists want to add all or nearly all prescriptions people take to the list, so they can check to make sure patients aren’t on other medications that could negatively interact with new ones they are prescribing.

After all, what could possibly go wrong?

This article appears in Sep 14-20, 2010.