Carl Hiassen asks that question today in his opinion piece in the Miami Herald:
Pill mills thrive as Gov. Scott nixes database
I love Hiassen's books...my kind of twisted humor. I also appreciate his point-of-view on the matter of FL Gov. Scott's intention to repeal the state's Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP).
Some excerpts and thoughts after the jump...
The question posed as the subject line of this diary is not the only question that Hiassen poses in his opinion piece. Here's another:
Why would any sane or sober public official go out of his way — very publicly — to protect pill pushers and crooked doctors?
Indeed.
Check my recent diary history if you're curious about why a guy living in Brooklyn would care about FL Gov. Scott's efforts to protect the state's pill mills and drug-dealing "doctors."
Hiassen sums it up pretty succinctly:
In the first six months of 2010, doctors in Florida prescribed nine times more oxycodone than was sold in the entire United States during that same period.
Now why would that be the case?
According to a federal indictment, seven clinics in Broward and Miami-Dade were controlled by a model citizen named Vincent Colangelo, a convicted heroin dealer.
Apparently pharmaceuticals now offer juicier profit-margins than smack.
Over a two-year period, Colangelo allegedly distributed more than 660,000 oxycodone pills, enriching him and his partners to the tune of $150,000 a day.
Hmmm....$150,000 a day. Good gig if you have no concience, I suppose. After speculating a bit as to Scott's potential motivations (ideological extremism; residual bitterness over the feds busting him for fraud at HCA/Columbia), Hiassen ponders:
In any case, one can’t help but wonder if Scott’s concern for shielding the privacy of dope dealers will extend to other criminals.
Perhaps next he’ll suggest abolishing the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, which maintains a fiendishly thorough computer list of every automobile, truck and motorcycle registered in the state.
That hypothetical triggered me to remember something else I discovered in following this story:
2009 letter hints at potential allies in Scott’s decision to repeal Drug Monitoring Program
As reported by Virginia Chamlee in The Florida Independent
:
But Scott is not alone in trying to repeal the program. A 2009 letter (.pdf) written to former Gov. Charlie Crist (who initially approved the Drug Monitoring Program) lists at least 13 heavy-hitters who are likely in favor of Scott’s recent proposal to repeal the program. #
Signed by state representatives including Trudi Williams, R-Fort Myers, Anitere Flores, R-Miami, and current House Speaker Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park, the letter requests that Crist veto Senate Bill 462, the initial bill proposing the Drug Monitoring Program, on the grounds that it would be an enormous privacy liability: ”This request is based on a well founded fear that the sensitive personal and medical information contained in such a database would be susceptible to cyber terrorists and criminals who would use such information against the citizens of Florida.” #
The letter references an incident in Virginia, in which a prescription drug database was hacked, and hackers made demands for $10 million in exchange for the return of medical records of over 8 million patients.
Full text of the letter is here (.pdf).
The letter opens with this paragraph:
Dear Governor Crist:
We respectfully request that you veto Senate Bill (SB) 462 entitled Prescription Drugs/Electronic Monitoring/DOH. This request is based on a well founded fear that the sensitive personal and medical information contained in such a database would be susceptible to cyber terrorists and criminals who would use such information against the citizens of Florida.
Hackers, I tell you, hackers! After we repeal the PDMP, we'll go after Florida's Deparment of Revenue, Deparment of Motor Vehicles, etc. Can't have the government maintaining databases. In fact let's shrink the FL gov't to the point where we can, um, drown it in a bathtub.
Which brings us back to Hiassen:
It would be crazy for Scott to veto the measure, but he seems determined to redefine crazy at least once a week.
Last week’s raids on the pill mills provided some insight into whom and what the storefront dope peddlers fear.
High on the list are big pharmacy chains, which have no qualms about using computers.
One undercover agent sat in a room full of pill buyers being coached by a clinic nurse on how to get their hefty prescriptions filled without attracting attention.
“Do not go to Walgreens,” the nurse warned. “I can’t say this enough. They are not your friend; they are the enemy.”
Unlike a certain governor.
As I've been asking all week -- Gov. Scott, who are you protecting?