Wednesday, February 02, 2011
Residents of Peoria, Arizona, will have to submit to fingerprinting and videotaping at their local pharmacy if they buy certain prescription painkillers, under a proposed city ordinance. Peoria is a suburb of Phoenix with a population of about 163,000.
Having witnessed the number of prescription fraud cases double in recent years, city officials want to ID all buyers of popular drugs like OxyContin and Percocet. The fingerprinting and videotaping requirement also would apply to people picking up prescriptions for family members.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona is not happy with the idea, saying it would represent an unwarranted intrusion on privacy rights, turn pharmacies into “annexes for police stations” and treat individuals not suspected of any crime as potential criminals.
John Musil, a member of the Arizona State Board of Pharmacy, told ABC-15, “I don't see why I as a pharmacist am now going to become a law official, that's not what I was trained to do."
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Arizona City Plans to Fingerprint Pharmacy Customers (by Daniel Tencer, Raw Story)
Cops Want Pharmacists to Take Fingerprints (by Jamie Ross, Courthouse News Service)
Peoria Pursues Pharmacy ID Checks (by Sonu Munshi, Arizona Republic)
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