Governor also signs bill for automatic voter registration, allowing judge to purge up to five misdemeanors from a person's record and one granting "free speech" to student journalists.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Stepping back from the escalating war of words between Attorney General Peter Kilmartin and the state's medical community over legislation aimed at pill-mills, Governor Gina Raimondo on Wednesday signed a bill allowing warrantless searches of the state's electronic prescription drug database.

In a letter to lawmakers, Democrat Raimondo cited "Rhode Island's "opioid epidemic,'' and more specifically, the "more than 1,200 Rhode Islanders [who] died of drug overdoses in the last five years.''

While the state's medical community has denounced the legislation as an unwarranted assault on patient confidentiality, Raimondo described the high-controversy legislation as one more "tool in the toolbox against the criminal networks that prey on Rhode Islanders who have become addicted to prescription drugs.''

"Allowing limited and carefully vetted access by law enforcement to our prescription drug monitoring program will put us on the road toward identifying and preventing criminal activity and diversion of legal prescription drugs,'' she wrote.

The bill was one of dozens Raimondo signed on Wednesday, as a deadline arrived for signing, vetoing or allowing bills to become law without her signature.

Raimondo also signed into law a bill championed by Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea to make Rhode Island the ninth state to allow automatic voter registration of anyone doing business at the DMV — and potentially other state offices — unless they decline.

If the new system works as designed, it will also update the central voter registration database, as voters change their home city and town addresses on their drivers' licenses and registration, removing potential "duplicates" from the voter rolls.

She also signed bills to allow a judge to purge up to five misdemeanors from an individual's court record; and to grant "free speech'' protection to student journalists.

The bill to give state and federal investigators access to the state's electronic prescription database without warrants has been among the most controversial to come out of the 2017 legislative session.

The database contains information on every prescription for a controlled substance dispensed by Rhode Island pharmacies — from highly addictive prescription opioids such as Vicodin and OxyContin to cough suppressants with codeine.

"We are concerned that these bills, if signed into law, may drive patients ‘underground’ and away from the care that they need and have the unintended effect of increasing the number of overdoses,″ R.I. Medical Society President Sarah J. Fessler wrote the governor.

Echoed Steven Brown, executive director of the ACLU of Rhode Island: “This bill strikes at the heart of doctor-patient confidentiality."

What followed was a rare public fight between Kilmartin and the state's doctors over the conduct of Rhode Island's medical community.

In response to the calls earlier this week for a veto, Kilmartin issued this statement: “The bill does not and would not allow law enforcement to ‘rummage through these records’ as the medical society ... has falsely claimed."

“The scare tactics by the medical society and others are disingenuous and are outright lies,'' he said. "Maybe the question we should be asking is, ‘What are the doctors trying to hide?’''

The response was swift — and angry.

"I read with disgust Attorney General Kilmartin’s comments,'' Michael E. Migliori, chief of the Department of Ophthalmology at Rhode Island Hospital — and a past president of the medical society — wrote The Journal. "The AG is tacitly saying that all physicians are criminal; he just hasn’t caught them yet. That would justify violating protections from unwarranted searches.''

"Doctors and other prescribers do share some responsibility for making narcotics easily available,'' Migliori acknowledged.

"Up until a few years ago, medical providers were being penalized for not doing enough to alleviate pain. Because of pressure by the federal government, insurers, and state legislatures to address pain, physicians in retrospect did often over-prescribe. As the (opioid) epidemic has grown, however, R.I. prescribers have stepped up and reduced the amount of narcotic prescriptions by 24 percent, the second highest reduction in the country.''

"As a result of the reduction in prescription drugs being diverted in RI, (opioid) users are turning to illicit narcotics... especially drugs laced with Fentanyl,'' he wrote. "So even with the reduction in medical provider contribution to the problem, we don’t have a corresponding reduction in the demand.''

But the state health director "already has access to the database, and knows who is prescribing what. She already has to power to sanction abusers. I see no reason that we should allow anyone else to bypass judicial review to access sensitive and confidential information."

Nearly 30 states, including Massachusetts and Connecticut, have similar laws, according to the governor's office.

— kgregg@providencejournal.com

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On Twitter: @kathyprojo