New, Rare Case on Wiretaps, Prescription Databases, GPS Tracking Warrants and Wiretap Statutes

A state-maintained Prescription Monitoring Program does not require a search warrant to access. Wiretaps are lawful so long as supported by probable cause and a showing of necessity. 

• Nevada’s Prescription Monitoring Program (“PMP”) 
• GPS tracking warrants 
• Wiretap warrants 
• California’s Controlled Substance Utilization and Review System (“CURES”) 

Providing opioid prescription information from Nevada’s Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) to law enforcement without the necessity of a search warrant is constitutional. PMP information — which doesn’t enjoy the same expectation of privacy as personal medical records — may be used to support probable cause needed to obtain a GPS tracking warrant. Wiretaps are lawful as long as they are supported by probable cause and a showing of necessity. 

In July 2018, a reliable confidential informant (“C.I.”) told law enforcement that defendant Myron Motley was traveling between California, where Motley lived, and Reno, Nev., for the purpose of illegally obtaining and selling prescription opioids, i.e., oxycodone and tramadol. In investigating this information, law enforcement requested and obtained a report (without the benefit of a warrant) from Nevada’s “Prescription Monitoring Program” (“PMP”) database that showed that one Reno physician had prescribed Motley “279 morphine milligram equivalent” (“MME”) units per day over a period of several years. The amount prescribed to Motley suggested “opioid abuse or diversion” (i.e., distribution to unauthorized recipients). The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) guidance at the time recommended avoiding or carefully justifying an increase in dosage equal to or greater than 90 MME per day, about a third of what defendant was receiving.  

It appeared to law enforcement that Motley must be illegally trafficking in opioids, as alleged by the C.I. As a result, law enforcement sought in September 2018, a global positioning system (“GPS”) tracking warrant from a Nevada state judge, proposing to attach a tracker to Motley’s vehicle. The affidavit in support of the warrant included the information from both the C.I. and the PMP ....