Like millions of other Americans, I take a few prescription drugs. I thought that my prescription use was private for the most part. Excluding of course the doctor, the pharmacy staff, the company owning the pharmacy, the drug-maker, my insurance company, perhaps my employer. You know, the usual kind of private.
But something caught my eye today in a story about the tragic incident at Virginia Tech.
An ABC news story about Cho Seung-Hui, the 23 year old student who opened fire and killed 32 on the campus of Virginia Tech yesterday included this paragraph
Some news accounts have suggested that Cho had a history of antidepressant use, but senior federal officials tell ABC News that they can find no record of such medication in the government's files. This does not completely rule out prescription drug use, including samples from a physician, drugs obtained through illegal Internet sources, or a gap in the federal database, but the sources say theirs is a reasonably complete search.
Is the federal government tracking my prescription use? Is my prescription history sitting in a database somewhere? Was I sleeping with the aid of my butterfly-kissed sleeping pill when this happened? It is the first that I have heard of such a broad federal program but I turn to you, fellow kosacks, for enlightment.
I have searched here for stories regarding and come up empty handed. I did find by "searching the Google" a story about a bill to track prescriptions currently making it's way through the Arizona senate. The story mentions the scale of such programs already in place in other states:
Similar programs are in place in 33 states, including those around Arizona, raising concerns that people are coming here to avoid detection.
I should clarify my question. I don't doubt that in certain situations federal officials have access to my medical history. The part of the quote that piqued my interest was that a federal database existed.