STATE WOULD KEEP LIST OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE USERS UNDER BILL

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.  - State government would create a database of everyone in Florida who gets a prescription of certain controlled substances, under a measure approved by a House subcommittee Wednesday.

The measure, aimed at saving lives and fighting fraud and backed by Gov.  Jeb Bush, passed over the objections of a few who said it could violate privacy issues.

Supporters say the sometimes deadly abuse of addictive prescription drugs is fast becoming an epidemic, and they cite a desperate need to slow the spiraling costs of government health care programs beset by fraud.

Prescription drug abuse now kills more people than murders in Florida, said bill sponsor Rep.  Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, and more people die overdosing on legal drugs than heroin.

"This is going to save lives," said Harrell.

Some lawmakers opposed the ( CS HB 397 ) because it may give government another way to track what people do and that medications can be a very private matter.  Rep.  Rene Garcia, R-Hialeah, likened it to Communist practices in Cuba.

"My parents fled a Communist country because everything was being centralized," Garcia said.  "A centralized database, knowing what they're taking, what they're not taking, is a little concerning to me."

Harrell said measures would be taken to prevent abuse of the database, and those law enforcement officials, doctors or others who try to misuse the information would face penalties.

Some private databases of what drugs people take are already kept by insurance companies and some government agencies, she noted.  And 15 other states have similar drug tracking programs.

"Medicare is a federal database that contains ...  every single diagnosis, every single procedure, every single thing that has ever happened medically to every senior," Harrell said.  "We are not going on witch hunts or anything of this sort."

Added Rep.  Anne Gannon, D-Delray Beach: "There's a public policy trade-off here.  We have physicians and pharmacists who can't keep track of who's using these drugs.  There's a huge cost to society."

The measure was approved 10-2 in the House Health Appropriations Subcommittee.  It next goes to the full House Appropriations Committee.

The database would only keep track of people who get prescriptions for certain controlled substances, including narcotics like pain relievers oxycodone or Percocet, or the anti-anxiety drug Xanax.  Children under 16 would not be included in the database.

The database would be kept until 2008, unless extended by lawmakers.  The bill also requires anyone picking up a prescription to show positive identification, one reason why it's touted as a way for the state to fight fraud, which is costing Medicaid millions.

"We anticipate the savings alone in Medicaid could pay for this," Harrell said.

The U.S.  Department of Justice, which is pushing such databases nationwide, would also help fund the database startup as would the pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma, the Connecticut-based maker of OxyContin that has pledged $2 million toward the program - an offer that expires in July.

The pledge was made in November 2002 when the state dropped an investigation into how the company marketed OxyContin.