ACLU pushes DEA in warrantless prescription database access lawsuit

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a motion to join a lawsuit pitting the Utah laws covering a state medical database against a Drug Enforcement Agency effort to access the database without a warrant. 

At issue is the Utah Controlled Substance Database refusing to turn over prescription data to the DEA. 

{mosads}The UCSD was created in 1996 to, says its website, “identify potential cases of drug over-utilization, misuse, and over-prescribing of controlled substances throughout the state.” In 2015, the state passed laws to guarantee the UCSD would not turn over data from its files without a warrant. 

The DEA, however, has the federal power to demand documents without a warrant using what is called an administrative subpoena — something that requires neither the evidentiary burden of a warrant or judicial oversight 

In June, the DEA filed suit against the UCSD to force it to honor the administrative subpoenas. On Thursday, the ACLU filed a motion to intervene in the case, which would allow it to enter the proceedings. 

The ACLU represents the privacy interests of its members in the database as well as those of the firefighters union, Local 1696, and the LGBTQ organization Equality Utah. They argue the DEA’s demands violate not only Utah law, but also the fourth amendment. 

“The relatively high need for pain control medication by firefighters means that … those records can be easily misinterpreted as evidence of drug abuse or other criminal behavior,” writes Local 1696 President Jeremy Robertson in a court filing. 

Equality Utah Executive Director Troy Williams expressed concern for the safety of transgender individuals taking hormones without tight controls on the UCSD. 

“Transgender men have a particularly heightened privacy interest in their prescription drug information because they are often the target of discrimination or other harm on the basis of their gender identity” reads Williams’s filing.