Thanks to everyone who has offered feedback on this story. After seeing a couple of comments about it here, I thought I would clarify two things about the controlled substance database.

First, the professional boards are largely self-funded -- they do receive some federal grant money throughout the year but take no money from the state of Nevada.

Also, any patient can contact the pharmacy board and request a copy of their personal prescription history in Nevada from the database. If it's something you're interested in, contact information is available on the pharmacy board's Web site: http://bop.nv.gov/