Frequently Searched

Arizona leads the way in protecting Free Speech in Medicine

March 29, 2017

Under federal law, pharmaceutical companies can be charged with a crime simply for telling a doctor about a legal, alternative use for an approved treatment. Sadly, government routinely censors the communication of valuable and truthful information that could help improve – and even save – people’s lives.

This changed in Arizona last week when Governor Doug Ducey signed HB 2382, a new state law that safeguards the free speech rights of those in the medical field to share truthful research and information about alternative uses for FDA-approved medicines.

The Free Speech in Medicine Act, sponsored by Representative Phil Lovas, passed the Arizona State House and Senate with unanimous, bipartisan support. Arizona is the first state in the country to enact this protection, which will expand the number of treatment options in doctors’ toolkits, enhance patients’ medical autonomy, and increase access to healthcare.

About one-in-five prescriptions are “off-label,” meaning the medicine is FDA-approved, but it is prescribed for a different use or dosage. While doctors can already legally prescribe off-label, federal law prohibits pharmaceutical companies from sharing information about off-label uses with doctors. As a result, doctors and patients may be unaware of alternative treatment options lawfully available them; and, even if they are aware, the information may be dated.

Curbing the exchange of information about off-label treatments by those with the most knowledge about the drug’s uses, risks, and side effects not only prevents patients from receiving the best possible care; it violates the constitutional right to free speech. Yet companies are subject to criminal penalties for communicating to doctors valuable information about lawful off-label uses for approved treatments.

Fortunately, states can protect the rights of doctors and pharmaceutical companies to freely share research and information about legal medical treatments. States already provide broader protections for free speech, property rights, and the right to privacy, than their federal counterpart. And the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that states have “great latitude” to protect people’s healthcare rights.

With HB 2382, Arizona is leading the way in protecting free speech in medicine, removing barriers that prevent healthcare professionals from providing the care they are trained to give. As the Supreme Court put it forty years ago, “information is not in itself harmful . . . people will perceive their own best interests if only they are well enough informed, and . . . the best means to that end is to open the channels of communication rather than to close them.” This is especially true in cases where the underlying behavior being communicated – here, prescribing off-label treatments – is itself perfectly lawful. Or, expressed another way by a Vermont doctor, “We have a saying in medicine, information is power. And the more you know, or anyone knows, the better decisions can be made.”

 

 

More on this issue

Donate Now

Help all Americans live freer, happier lives. Join the Goldwater Institute as we defend and strengthen freedom in all 50 states.

Donate Now

Since 1988, the Goldwater Institute has been in the liberty business — defending and promoting freedom, and achieving more than 400 victories in all 50 states. Donate today to help support our mission.

We Protect Your Rights

Our attorneys defend individual rights and protect those who cannot protect themselves.

Need Help? Submit a case.

Get Connected to Goldwater

Sign up for the latest news, event updates, and more.

Wait! Don’t close this yet!

We are grateful for your support of the Goldwater Institute’s efforts to advance and defend liberty throughout the United States. For over 36 years, we’ve been defending the rights of Americans to live their lives free from government interference.

And Goldwater is unique in that we direct our efforts to the 50 states where we introduce and advance innovative ideas that expand freedom. And we fight in courtrooms and capitals nationwide to defend individual liberty.

In 2024 alone, we scored over 50 policy and litigation victories defending liberty!

And that’s just the beginning.

Our plans for 2025 include:

  • Stopping pernicious DEI and other woke programs in America’s universities.
  • Ensuring that patients suffering from rare and terminal diseases have access to cutting-edge, lifesaving medical treatments, without having to first seek permission from the government.
  • Defending parental rights across the United States so that parents can send their kids to the school that best fits their needs, free from leftist indoctrination.
  • Eliminating government interference in the fundamental right of individuals to own property and use it as they see fit.
  • And much, much more

We seek to restore the presumption of liberty; that people are free to act without first asking permission from the government.

But we cannot do this without you. Will you join us as we fight to preserve and advance liberty throughout the country? As we seek new and innovative ways to defend freedom in all 50 states?

And there’s great news: Thanks to a generous Goldwater supporter, your donation today will be doubled!

So please, join us in fighting to advance liberty and score real wins for freedom from coast to coast!