With America united in collective outrage over revelations of widespread domestic surveillance by the National Security Agency, another federal branch – the Drug Enforcement Agency – has quietly set about dismantling the Fourth Amendment when it comes to accessing our private medical data.

Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union joined the State of Oregon in federal court in Portland to challenge the DEA’s attempt to use warrantless “administrative subpoenas” to obtain information on patients from the state’s prescription drug monitoring database.

It’s unlikely the plaintiffs will prevail; while Oregon law prohibits state police from digging into patient prescription data without a search warrant, thanks to the gradual erosion of civil liberties under the “war on drugs,” the DEA does not require a court order to request such information in the course of an open investigation.

But at least Oregon is fighting for the privacy rights of its citizens. Pennsylvania, on the other hand, seems intent on giving them away.

Since September, three bills have been introduced in Harrisburg designed to expand the commonwealth’s own prescription monitoring system by establishing a database listing all prescriptions of controlled medications and the identities of the citizens who receive them.

The latest proposal was introduced in November by Sen. Pat Vance, R-Cumberland , and, unlike Oregon, would give state and federal law enforcement officials virtually unimpeded access to the prescription records of millions of Pennsylvanians who take Schedule II drugs.

These include not only narcotic painkillers like hydrocodone, oxycodone and morphine, but drugs like Ritalin and Adderall that are used to treat childhood ADHD.

Reggie Shuford, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, put it best when he said: “The privacy of the child who breaks his arm on his bike or who takes attention deficit medication is being sacrificed because someone across town is abusing these substances.”