Public Radio for the Piedmont and High Country
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Bill Would Give Police Access To Drug Database

This Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2017 photo shows an arrangement of pills of the opioid oxycodone-acetaminophen. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison)

Law enforcement officers would have access to a statewide database of some prescription drugs under a bill filed in the North Carolina legislature. Some lawmakers say it will help address the opioid epidemic. But the move also raises privacy concerns.

The proposal covers prescriptions of controlled pharmaceuticals such as Valium, morphine and codeine.

The News & Observer reports that the database exists to see if a patient is getting controlled substances from multiple doctors. The information is purged every six years, limiting how far back law enforcement would be able to look.

The North Carolina American Civil Liberties Union said such a law would be the first of its kind in the nation to allow law enforcement officers quick access to the system.

Some doctors and privacy groups have raised questions about what that access could mean for patients.

State officials say more than 13,000 North Carolinians have died from opioid-related overdoses since 1999.

Paul Garber is a Winston-Salem native and an award-winning reporter who began his journalism career with an internship at The High Point Enterprise in 1993. He has previously worked at The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The News and Record of Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Journal, where he was the newspaper's first full-time multimedia reporter. He won the statewide Media and the Law award in 2000 and has also been recognized for his business, investigative and multimedia reporting. Paul earned a BA from Wake Forest University and has a Master's of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's of Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Lewisville.

Support quality journalism, like the story above,
with your gift right now.

Donate