[1920musicman]

To play devil's advocate: sounds like a "bona fide articulable suspicion of a crime" doesn't necessarily mean there is a documented reason for the release of records that has been authorized by a judge. Wouldn't that leave too much space for abuse?

[CodeAndCuffs]

Yeah, it could. People can also lie on affidavits for warrants, but it does leave more of a paper trail to catch the guy. Honestly I don't think I'd be against a warrant requirement, but I also think we need a way to speed up the warrant process a _lot_. Right now it often involves a 1 hour + drive to a magistrates office, 30-45 minutes of filling out paperwork by hand, plus the hearing, getting the actual warrant printed+signed+logged, then 1 hour + drive back to where you need to be. I think you'd see less pushback of warrants in general if it leveraged the technology we have. We should absolutely be able to file an affidavit electronically, facetime a magistrate, and get a warrant approved/denied that way.

But again, getting records from the pharmacy isn't really the issue. The government already has the records of the doctor that "wrote" the prescription. All the pharmacy is giving you is the physical copy of the record + data of who picked it up.

[dvngnt_]

3hrs seems like a small price to pay for patient privacy

[dwattttt]

Everything is cheap when you aren't the one paying for it.

[hn_acker]

Without a warrant requirement, all patients collectively pay their privacy away without knowing it. Is the collective benefit worth it? (Remember, the "benefit" is the additional harm the government prevents when not constrained by a default warrant requirement, not the total harm the government prevents with and without getting warrants.)

[beenBoutIT]

Our entire system is built around the fundamentally American belief that adults need to obtain permission to consume anything that isn't Alcohol or Tobacco (Unless you're an Indian living on a reservation where alcohol has been banned as well).

American pharmacies take special care to put our full names along with our doctors names and phone numbers just to make sure that nobody gets away with possessing drugs that the aren't allowed to have.

A big country like Iran banning alcohol seems unimaginable until you remember that for whatever reason alcohol is the only thing a big country like America hasn't banned.

[getwiththeprog]

Actually America did ban alcohol at one point, but it did not go so well...

[travoc]

At this point, some legitimate patients may find it less concerting to just buy their medicine on the black market and avoid all the surveillance.

[patmorgan23]

Warrants are regularly issued based on electronic filings and phone conferences are they not? Everyone spent an entire year plus doing almost all court processes entirely online/over zoom.