Pa. Senate Passes Prescription Drug Monitoring Program
By Tony Romeo
HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBS) - In an effort to combat abuse, the state Senate has now passed its own version of a bill to create a prescription drug monitoring program.
The state Senate has passed a bill that would create a database of prescription drugs that are commonly abused. Both the House and Senate have now passed their own versions of such legislation that, among other things, define the means by which law enforcement would be able to access that database.
Republican Pat Vance is the sponsor of the version that passed the Senate on Tuesday.
"I believe that this legislation strikes the right balance between permitting law enforcement access to the prescription drug information and maintaining appropriate privacy," Vance said.
But both the House and Senate bills get a thumbs down from the ACLU.
A spokesman for the civil liberties group says each version is better in some aspects than the other, but that neither contain adequate privacy protections that the ACLU can support.