CRONE, J.
Nicholas Williams was arrested and charged with possessing the controlled substances methadone and alprazolam. The existence of a valid prescription is a defense to the crime of possession of a controlled substance. Because Williams initially could not remember the names of the doctors who had allegedly prescribed those substances or the pharmacies at which the prescriptions were allegedly filled, his counsel served a subpoena on the Indiana Board of Pharmacy (“the Board”), which maintains a computerized database used to monitor the prescription of controlled substances, requesting a certified copy of “any and all” of Williams’s prescription records.
The Board filed a motion to quash the subpoena, asserting that the requested information was confidential pursuant to statute and therefore could not be released to Williams. . . . .
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We conclude that the confidentiality provisions of the applicable statute were enacted to protect Williams’s physician-patient privilege and pharmacist-patient privilege and that he has waived those privileges by requesting his prescription records in the exercise of his constitutional right to present a complete defense to the charged crimes. We further conclude that Williams’s request is sufficiently particular, that the requested information is material to his defense, that not all the information requested would be available from his doctors, and that the Board has failed to show a paramount interest in not disclosing the information. Therefore, we reverse the trial court’s ruling and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
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In the absence of a conflicting criminal rule, the Indiana Rules of Trial Procedure generally apply to criminal proceedings. State v. Cline (In re WTHR-TV), 693 N.E.2d 1, 5 (Ind. 1998) (citing Ind. Criminal Rule 21). “Trial Rule 34 enables parties to a lawsuit to request information or material directly from both parties and non-parties.” Id. The scope of discovery is governed by Trial Rule 26(B), which reads in pertinent part as follows:
Parties may obtain discovery regarding any matter, not privileged, which is relevant to the subject-matter involved in the pending action, whether it relates to the claim or defense of the party seeking discovery or the claim or defense of any other party, including the existence, description, nature, custody, condition and location of any books, documents, or other tangible things and the identity and location of persons having knowledge of any discoverable matter. It is not ground for objection that the information sought will be inadmissible at the trial if the information sought appears reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.
Ind. Trial Rule 26(B)(1).
The Indiana Supreme Court has established the following three-part test “for the discoverability of records by a criminal defendant in certain circumstances”:
(1) there must be sufficient designation of the items sought to be discovered (particularity); (2) the requested items must be material to the defense (relevance or materiality); and (3) if the first two requirements are met, the trial court must grant the request unless there is a showing of “paramount interest” in nondisclosure.
In re Crisis Connection, Inc., 949 N.E.2d 789, 794 (Ind. 2011). This test does not apply, however, “when the question is the discoverability of information that is otherwise privileged.” Id.
Indiana Code Section 35-48-7-11.1(a) provides that the information received by the INSPECT program from controlled substance dispensers is “confidential.” . . . .
Conspicuously absent from the list of persons specifically authorized to receive information from the INSPECT database is the person for whom a controlled substance is prescribed and dispensed – in other words, the patient. To the extent that the confidential information in the database might also be considered privileged, by virtue of either the physician-patient privilege or the pharmacist-patient privilege, [footnote omitted] that privilege inures to the patient, not the Board (or the physician or the pharmacist, for that matter). Here, Williams’s request for information from the database regarding his prescriptions amounts to a waiver of any privilege, and therefore we conclude that the aforementioned three-part test for discoverability applies in this case.
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The Board contends that Williams’s request for “any and all” of his prescription records is “overly broad.” Appellee’s Br. at 8. Given that the INSPECT database is computerized, one would reasonably expect that producing “any and all” of Williams’s prescription records would not be especially burdensome. As such, the scope of his request is not particularly concerning here. The Board also contends that Williams “can obtain the information regarding any legally obtained prescriptions from the treating physicians in this matter.” Id. We disagree. As mentioned earlier, Williams could not remember the specific pharmacies that allegedly dispensed his prescriptions, and thus obtaining his records from the INSPECT database would verify whether those prescriptions were actually dispensed to him. There is no indication that such information would be available from his treating physicians.
Regarding the second part of the three-part test, “[a]n item is ‘material’ if it appears that it might benefit the preparation of the defendant’s case. The relevance of some information or items may be self-evident.” Cline, 693 N.E.2d at 7 (citation omitted). Here, the relevance of Williams’s prescription records is indeed self-evident, in that they would establish (or at least help to establish) a complete defense to the two possession charges.
Having concluded that Williams has made a sufficient showing of both particularity and materiality, we now address whether the Board has shown a paramount interest in the nondisclosure of Williams‟s prescription records. “Whether a sufficient interest has been shown to prevent discovery will depend upon the type of interest put forth and the category of information sought. A legitimate interest in keeping the information or items confidential, for example, may suffice to deny discovery.” Id. (citation and quotation marks omitted). Here, the Board emphasizes the confidentiality provisions of Indiana Code Section 35-48-7-11.1 and says,
The information may only be disclosed to those persons or agencies delineated in the statute. Ind. Code § 35-48-7-11.1(b). There is no exception for disclosure by the Board to parties not listed in the statute. Moreover, it is a criminal offense for anyone to disclose information in violation of the statute. Ind. Code § 35-48-7-14.[4]
Appellee’s Br. at 5.
It seems obvious that the confidentiality provisions of Indiana Code Section 35-48-7-11.1 were enacted to uphold the protections of the physician-patient privilege and the pharmacist-patient privilege. Where, as here, a patient seeks to waive those privileges for the purpose of exercising his or her constitutional right to present a complete defense to charges in a criminal case, both the rationale for and the Board’s interest in keeping the patient’s prescription records confidential evaporate. . . . .
BAILEY, J., and MATHIAS, J., concur.