Hawaii officials release names of patients using medicinal marijuana to press
HIPAA Weekly Advisor, July 21, 2008
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A Hawaii Tribune-Herald reporter had simply requested statistics pertaining to the use of medical marijuana, but the State Department of Public Safety responded with an e-mail containing patient names and addresses, plant locations, certificate numbers, and the names of prescribing physicians, The Honolulu Advertiser reported July 12.
The resulting front-page story in the June 27 Hawaii Tribune-Herald didn’t identify the patients, but the newspaper soon began receiving angry phone calls, according to The Honolulu Advertiser article.
The Department of Public Safety sent letters of apology to the 4,200 patients whose information was compromised, The Honolulu Advertiser reported.
David Bock, editor of the Hawaii Tribune-Herald, also told The Honolulu Advertiser that his newspaper has complied with the request to destroy the information. "We just wanted to know the number of people in Hawaii County who were currently receiving medical marijuana," Bock said. "And they erroneously sent us the list with the actual names."
Hawaii is one of 12 states that permits the use of marijuana to help treat patients with debilitating medical conditions (e.g., cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, chronic back or neck pain), according to The Honolulu Advertiser article.
Click here to read The Honolulu Advertiser article.
Click here to read the Hawaii Tribune-Herald article.
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