Colorado’s New Big Brother MMJ Database
Filed Under: Health Issues on December 16, 2010
Colorado has decided that the privacy of patient health records is negotiable and that this information needs to be shared with law enforcement at the local, state, and federal level on a 24/7 basis. All despite the Constitution of the State of Colorado and federal laws regarding medical records.
The state bureaucracy is moving forward with plans to take Colorado’s (currently) confidential medical marijuana registry and “integrate” it with law enforcement and tax office databases.
The Colorado Department of Revenue’s Medical Marijuana Advisory Board held a final meeting for the year on Monday, December 6. At that meeting, a (no doubt highly paid) consultant gave a presentation regarding what she believes will be required for the various state agencies to have full access to the medical marijuana patient registry and improvements that need to be made to the registry itself.
The plan is for the patient registry to be open and shared with several state and federal agencies including the Colorado Department of Revenue, Department of Public Health and Environment, and all local, state, and federal law enforcement including the DEA, FBI, Colorado Crime Information Center and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
This “data integration” will have one purpose: to ostracize and play Big Brother over the state’s medical marijuana patients and caregivers.
Of course, that’s not how they said it. The Tax Department (I mean.. Department of “Revenue”) says that this is so that patients are more easily identified by law enforcement during drug stings and to reduce wrongful arrests of those legally possessing marijuana.
Ya, right. Law enforcement has a stellar record, especially at the federal level, of recognizing patients’ rights when it comes to MMJ.
None of the bureaucrats have bothered to notice that the very idea of this setup requires a full amendment to change Colorado’s constitution. Currently, it reads:
(3) The state health agency shall create and maintain a confidential registry of patients who have applied for and are entitled to receive a registry identification card according to the criteria set forth in this subsection, effective June 1, 1999.
(a) No person shall be permitted to gain access to any information about patients in the state health agency’s confidential registry, or any information otherwise maintained by the state health agency about physicians and primary care-givers, except for authorized employees of the state health agency in the course of their official duties and authorized employees of state or local law enforcement agencies which have stopped or arrested a person who claims to be engaged in the medical use of marijuana and in possession of a registry identification card or its functional equivalent, pursuant to paragraph (e) of this subsection (3). Authorized employees of state or local law enforcement agencies shall be granted access to the information contained within the state health agency’s confidential registry only for the purpose of verifying that an individual who has presented a registry identification card to a state or local law enforcement official is lawfully in possession of such card.
(Constitution of the State of Colorado, Article XVIII, Section 14)
Note the use of the word “confidential” and the “No personal shall be permitted to gain access” bits. Seems pretty damn clear to me. You?
Except for the five or six minute presentation at the meeting, the rest of the information on these proposed changes are buried in a 90-odd page set of draft rules the Medical Marijuana Advisory Board unveiled. The current database is maintained by the Colorado Department of Health and Environment and can only be accessed by police officers who are specifically requesting a “yes” or “no” answer to the question of a patient’s registry status.
The proposed reasoning and justification for the new All Seeing Eye Database* is pretty baseless (*my proposed name for the new database). A rule-making hearing next month will likely seal the deal unless patients and advocates in Colorado stand up and make some noise about this.
I suggest threatening lawsuits over the proposal’s constitutionality. Maybe suggesting a similar database be created for blood donors, transplant waiting lists, people with pacemakers, those with diabetes, and another list for politicians and bureaucrats who don’t do what the police think they should be doing. These sound just as reasonable to me. If we’re going to have a Big Brother Police State, let’s go all the way! Why pretend?
Information From:
Cannabis Therapy Institute
Face the State (Greg Campbell)
Cannabis Therapy Institute YouTube Channel
Michie Institute Legal Resources (Colorado Constitution)
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Colorado, Aaron Turpen. Aaron Turpen said: Colorado’s New Big Brother MMJ Database http://bit.ly/hbCsur [...]
I was very interested in your discussion of the marijuana database. Most Coloradans have no idea of the amount of data Colorado collects on its citizens. For example if you are prescribed any controlled substance(e.g. for an injury) you are automatically placed in a variaty of state databases which are accessable to a large number of individuals who have no legitimate use for this informations. In addition unauthized access to these databases is rampant.
Another example: If you are treated by a physician for an addiction you are placed in a database and your name is never taken off that database. Never. Again unauthorized access is rampant.
The move towards electronic medical databases is probably
the greatest risk to our privacy.
If an 18 year old has some problems and seeks the help of a psychiatrist that information will still be in a database when that individual is 80 years old, even if if the individual has lead a problem free and successful life. Again the information is subject to abuse in all kinds of ways.
We need to fight electronic medical records.
If someone has an allergy to a medication it is his responsibily to carry this information on his person at all times.
I agree with you except on one point. We should oppose all UNIVERSAL medical databases run by government. I have no problem with opt-in, privatized networks/databases. This allows the person to voluntarily participate and private databases would be much easier to control (sue) and would have a bigger reason to serve the customer. Many people right now use personal health records (PHR), which are private health records systems that allow easy portability of health records and give the person (patient) full control over their own medical records.