Angry texts.
I got a bunch of very angry texts this morning.
My friends are fired up. Because of Governor Greitens’s executive order. **An executive order that implements a novel approach to prescription drug databases. **
In case you haven’t heard, Governor Greitens signed an executive order on July 17. The EO made Missouri the 50th state to establish some sort of prescription drug tracking.
Most states track everything about prescriptions. And** hyperactive federal judges** have already opened those state databases to the unmasking eyes of the Deep State. So **what makes Greitens’s plan unique and amazing?**
First, let’s look at the threat to privacy posed by most states' plans. A threat the Missouri legislature almost brought to Missouri.
From Business Insider:
Federal courts in Utah and Oregon recently ruled that the Drug Enforcement Administration, in its effort to investigate suspected drug abusers or pill mills, can access information in those states’ PDMPs without a warrant, even over the states’ objections.
That means the federal government can look in your medicine cabinet. Anytime. Without a warrant. Unless you live in Missouri.
The bills that failed in the Missouri legislature (narrowly) looked like laws in those other states. The legislature would have tracked patients and prescribers and dispensers. But the legislature failed. So Greitens acted.
Greitens’s EO is different. Very different. So different, Democrat Claire McCaskill is screaming for more intrusion. Like they have in other states.
Here’s what makes the Greitens EO more palatable to conservatives. Via stltoday.com:
While most monitoring programs track when patients are prescribed an opioid painkiller, Greitens’ plan would focus the data collection effort by the Department of Health and Senior Services on those who prescribe and distribute addictive drugs like Vicodin, OxyContin and Percocet.
That’s a huge distinction. If you’re worried about privacy and federal intrusion.
Most states track patients. Missouri tracks the source, not the consumer. That’s a huge protection for privacy.
You might not like Greitens’s use of an executive order. You might not like any monitoring at all. You might like unfettered access to opioids. Many people do.
But it seems like Governor Greitens pulled off a small miracle. He protected our privacy and took a step toward slowing the opioid nightmare in Missouri.
We don’t know yet if the monitoring program will be effective. We do know that big pharma’s opioid pushing program kills people. And the legislature’s plan would have been far worse for privacy. Greitens’s is better.
The legislation that failed allowed the state to track patient information. It required the data be purged after 180 days. But a federal judge could easily order the data preserved beyond that. Like those judges in Utah and Oregon.
Greitens’s action also won praise from others with conservatives. HHS Secretary Tom Price and Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley both praised Greitens’s action. Hawley is a Federalist Society guy who takes privacy and liberty very seriously. But, as AG, he also takes lives seriously.
It’s easy to understand why liberty activists would object to any increased government. But people will calm down and even admire Greitens’s action when they learn how carefully he protects their privacy. While going after the opioid pushers.