Federal drug investigators will need to obtain a search warrant before gaining access to information on Oregon's Prescription Drug Monitoring Program database, ruled U.S. District Judge Ancer Haggerty in the U.S. District Court in the District of Oregon.
The Oregon PDMP filed suit against the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in November 2012 after objecting to the DEA's administrative subpoena for prescription records of individual patients. The PDMP contested that disclosing the subpoenaed information violated Oregon law since the DEA's subpoenas did not have an accompanying court order. They filed a motion for declaratory relief to determine its rights and obligations regarding DEA administrative subpoenas.
The PDMP is an electronic database that records information of prescribed drugs categorized in Schedules II-IV under the Controlled Substances Act. Any pharmacy that dispenses such a drug must record information about the prescription in the PDMP, including quantity of the drug, medical information about the patient and information about the prescribing physician.
According to the PDMP's website, "law enforcement agencies will not have direct access to the system, but law enforcement officials may request information from the Oregon Health Authority if they have a valid court order based on probable cause for an authorized drug-related investigation of an individual."
The judge ruled in favor of the plaintiff, citing the Fourth Amendment, saying the amendment "guards against searches and seizures of items or places in which a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy," and patients' expectation of privacy regarding their prescription information is reasonable.
"Although there is not an absolute right to privacy in prescription information, as patients must expect that physicians, pharmacists, and other medical personnel can and must access their records, it is more than reasonable for patients to believe that law enforcement agencies will not have unfettered access to their records," reads the judge's decision.
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