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Australian states are looking to implement real-time prescription monitoring to control prescription drug overdoses and deaths caused by prescription drug use which it is believed causes the death of around 800 Australians per year. The new system, named Drugs and Poisons Information System Online Remote Access or "DORA", will be opt in initially until a national scheme is established. This is the second drug control related system to be introduced by the government to combat prescription drug abuse, or so it is claimed.
In 2018 codeine based medicine was restricted to prescription only, ending the decades of over the counter availability of this common drug used for combating pain. Some people consider the deaths of a few hundred people to be just an excuse to put these systems in place.
Will these systems prevent people's privacy from being violated? Will Australians be forced to have a MyHealthRecord in order to be able to get a prescription filled? What is the end game here? Only time will tell because our government is not saying.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 12 2018, @01:13AM (7 children)
They're not saying because they're just winging it and don't have a clue.
You really think politicians have some end-game beyond getting re-elected, or at least not acting like a complete tit in public?
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Thursday July 12 2018, @01:21AM
"Efficiency"
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday July 12 2018, @01:46AM (1 child)
There's also:
Oh yeah? What people? Citation required.
Here it is:
So, the people who profit from the drug want to be able to continue to sell it. OK then.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Thursday July 12 2018, @12:50PM
How does Australia treat drug addictions? As a medical problem, with the sufferers looked upon as victims who need help? Or as a moral failing, with the sufferers looked upon as sinners and criminals who deserve punishment? Their policies on that matter indicate how they will use the power that additional information gives them. However, no matter how benevolent they are now, a change for the worst, into a fascist dictatorship, is only one election away.
Think of the few hundred deaths? That's like "think of the children!" Of course we don't want anyone accidentally dying from an overdose, but a national monitoring system, how is that going to help, really? That's like administering antibiotics to everyone daily, whether they're sick or not, just as a preventative measure. And how is any concentration of power and knowledge inherent in any kind of national monitoring system going to be checked and balanced so it isn't abused to take away our freedoms? That question must not be ignored.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 12 2018, @02:43AM
Like anybody working for hire, they generally do what their bosses tell them to do.
However, their bosses also think they will survive N-day in luxury bunkers.
Their arrogance knows no bounds.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by jb on Thursday July 12 2018, @05:14AM (2 children)
No idea whether that AC does or not, but many of us here do.
The "end game" is quite clearly complete resurrection of the Australia Card (proposed in 1985, rejected in 1987, just as scary in 2018), a tool that would have been truly Orwellian in its applications.
The present "GovID" proposal is a 21st century term for a late 20th century idea that really should be have been killed off forever while there were still enough people alive who remembered just how chilling hearing the phrase "your papers, please?" had been in certain parts of the world in the mid 20th century.
The side-shows like "MyHealthRecord" and this latest proposal are just preparatory steps to ease the population in acceptance one step at time this time round (since last time around proved that the all-at-once approach was not going to work) -- it's a textbook example of the "how to boil a frog" strategy...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 12 2018, @03:34PM
Alternately, a government bureaucracy having records of their interactions with you - and having some way of estimating that you are who you say you are - makes government... possible.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday July 12 2018, @07:42PM
The cover letter that came with my Brand-Spankin'-New United States Passport requested that I treat it gently so as not to damage its RFID chip.
My Washington State ID card looks just like that of California. I expect there is now some manner of standards specification that is intended to make IDs and Driver's Licenses far more difficult and expensive to forge.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]