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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) 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.