Colorado Considers Biometric Identification to Dispense Prescription Drugs

by John Galt
March 14, 2012 05:20 ET

In what could be called the first major state to consider the idea of Big Brother dominating the everyday lives of many citizens, the state legislature of Colorado is considering an extremely intrusive measure which would force doctors to take a biometric sample, either  a fingerprint or retinal scan, for the dispensing of prescription medication. The idea as outlined in the magazine article from Security Management, is fairly simple:

Before prescribing or dispensing medication, medical providers would be required gather to information including the prescribing doctor's name, office address, medication instructions, and the name and address of the patient, in addition to their biometric identifier — a fingerprint or retinal scan. In other industries, facial and vein recognition have also been used for verification.

The process seems simple and innocent enough. The data is encrypted, a secure communication is sent to the pharmacy of the customer's choice, and upon arrival at the pick up location the customer provides the biometric identifier to pick up the prescription. The problem with the program was easy to identify also though, as the article states:

The patient's data would be converted into a unique identifier and sent (encrypted) to the pharmacy. Only the receiving pharmacy could decrypt the information. That's how it should work. But privacy advocates say gathering so much data would provide dangerously detailed information about patients if hackers decided to target the database.

Considering corporate America's track record against hackers and especially the government's inability to secure personal data, the dangers of this program are obvious. Hacker's are already infiltrating pharmacy databases for celebrities and politicians to obtain data on the drugs used by those customers in search of potentially embarrassing information. What is to prevent them from hacking the new biometric databases to obtain information which allows them to share the biometric identifiers with their friends for possible blackmail? Or worse, with foreign powers or unethical government bureaucrats with nefarious plans to do the same.

What is disturbing about this plan is that this is the first step to herd the sheeple into place for the REAL ID program where biometric identification will be required to seek employment, fly on commercial airlines, visit other nations, and ultimately move within the United States. Once Pandora's box is open, it is only a matter of time that all financial transactions will be illegal, especially cash transactions and barter, without the use of a biometric data validation which communicates activities of the user to a tax collection authority at the local, state, and ultimately Federal level. The use of this type of identification is the  ultimate “mark of the beast” because it removes independence from consumers and the privacy our society expects while providing the opportunity for instantaneous taxation on all transactions at every level by government at every level.

Welcome to 1984 Colorado, let's see if the Rocky Mountain state leads the way down a dark path to destroy individual freedoms.

To read the entire article from Security Management about the program, click on the title below:

Colorado to Discuss Retinal Scans, Fingerprinting to Secure Prescription Drugs