VT police not allowed to use prescription database

Police in Vermont are barred from access to a key state database that tracks the prescribing of potentially addictive opiate drugs, even though the $392,371 in biennial funding the program receives comes from the federal Department of Justice. Instead, the database known as the prescription drug monitoring network is run by the state Health Department for the benefit of the state's medical community, said Barbara Cimaglio, deputy commissioner for substance abuse at the state Health Department. "It's really a tool to assist the physicians," Cimaglio said. "It's not a tool to routinely and swiftly identify people who are abusing medications."