Balloon Juice - The War on Pain Relief Goes Digital

And yet another Bush-signed bill I don’t like:

President Bush signed into law a bill to create electronic monitoring programs to prevent the abuse of prescription drugs in all 50 states.

The new law creates a grant program for states to create databases and enhance existing ones in hopes of ending the practice of “doctor shopping” by drug abusers seeking multiple prescriptions. It would authorize $60 million for the program through fiscal 2010.

The bill, signed late Thursday at the president’s Crawford, Texas, ranch, was sponsored by Rep. Ed Whitfield, a Republican representing Kentucky’s 1st District.

Kentucky’s existing electronic prescription monitoring database, called KASPER – Kentucky All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting – would be eligible for enhancement grants under the bill. Establishing programs in adjacent states would help prevent abusers from crossing borders to get prescription drugs and then bring them back into Kentucky.

Sure, it sounds like something thatwill be used for nothing but the good fight against addiction and crime. But in no time at all, thisd will be nothing more than a high-tech system to continue harassing doctors. Radley Balko has more.

We do not need to pander to people who do not like what we stand for.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

If you’re gonna whine, it’s time to resign!

That meeting sounds like a shotgun wedding between a shitshow and a clusterfuck.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

The world has changed, and neither one recognizes it.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

The War on Pain Relief Goes Digital

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