Jim Edwards asks, “Why Do Police Want a Centralized Database of Flu Sufferers?”
A federal law intended to restrict the crystal meth trade is leading to a centralized police database of flu sufferers. In a rash of recent cases across the South and Midwest, people innocently buying the nasal decongestant pseudoephedrine – often sold as Pfizer (PFE)’s Sudafed, Dimetapp, and Advil Allergy Sinus, and Merck (MRK)’s Clarinex-D – have been arrested for “promotion of meth manufacturing” when in fact all they have is a stuffy nose. Possessing too much pseudoephedrine is often the sole requirement for a “promotion of meth manufacturing” charge.
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In Wabash Valley, Ind., Sally Harpold bought a box of Zyrtec and a box of Mucinex and became the subject of an early morning police raid:
The morning she was arrested, Harpold and her husband were awakened by police officers banging on the front door of their home at Midway along U.S. 36. She was allowed to get dressed, and was then taken in handcuffs to the Clinton Police Department, where she was questioned about her cold medicine purchases. She was later booked into jail, and her husband had to pay $300 bail to get her released.
Harpold is actually employed in law enforcement: she works at the Rockville Correctional Facility for women. Her police mugshot ran on the front page of her local newspaper under the headline “17 Arrested in Drug Sweep.” The local cops couldn’t care less, according to TribStar.com….
Read more on bnet. Really. Read it. This is one of the problems with surveillance databases that do not have adequate checks on their use. People’s reputations can be wrecked.
Some in law enforcement acknowledge the problem, but their solution is to gaily discard HIPAA and invade privacy in the name of preventing false arrests:
The police’s major complaint about the law is that it doesn’t go far enough in allowing them to scrutinize the citizenry’s medical records. The system falls down, they say, because the pharmacy records aren’t centralized. They want to install a single, central online database into which all pharmacies would enter the indentifying information of anyone buying Sudafed.
The war on drugs should never be confused with a war on flu. Get it together, people. In the meantime, my family will stick to chicken soup, I guess.