State Police Prescription Data Mining – Is Nothing Sacred?
Green Mountain Daily has recently reported that the Vermont State Police, under the guise of implementing the Vermont Prescription Monitoring System (18 VSA §4281 et. seq.), are data mining by obtaining the entire pharmacy prescription records of everyone prescribed a Schedule II, III or IV drug – and all without a warrant. As Justice Denise Johnson wrote in her dissent in State v. Welch : “…[I]ndividuals have a privacy interest in their prescription records. Such records contain extremely private and potentially embarrassing information about the patient…They may disclose highly personal facts concerning a person’s lifestyle, ailments, or sources of stress and anxiety…These are matters of great sensitivity that go to the heart of our concerns for privacy. ”
Many of former governor Howard Dean’s gubernatorial papers were a secret despite great efforts to obtain them during his presidential bid, and Governor Douglas has tried to assert a “deliberative privilege” for documents he didn’t want the public to see. Perhaps the most secretive entity in Vermont’s government is the Judicial Conduct Board which handles complaints against judges. It looks like it’s only your privacy that’s not important.