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.
Jim Caputo
I think it’s only fitting that we refer to this new law by it’s parenthetical name: Rush’s Law