Legislation to Aid Opioid Lawsuit Heads to Governor
May 3rd, 2019 by Jake Stofan
Florida’s Attorney General Ashley Moody scored a major victory Friday in the state’s lawsuit against opioid manufacturers.
The Legislature has sent a bill to the Governor that would allow her office access to information in the prescription drug monitoring data base as tool to show that the drugs have been overprescribed in the state.
Privacy concerns threatened the legislation early on, but Moody says the proper safeguards are in place.
“I believe one of the experts said we have a greater likelihood of being struck by a meteor than we did being able to identify a patient,” said Moody. “We’ve also build in safeguards in terms of seeking protective orders and orders by the court and then destroying the information after we’ve used it.”
Under the bill the Attorney General will be able to access the age and zip code of patients along with the amount of medication the were prescribed.
The authority to access the database will also sunset after two years.
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