No Viagra for offenders

Nearly 800 sex offenders in 14 states have been getting Medicaid-funded prescriptions for impotence drugs, the Associated Press reported earlier this week. Sex offenders are people whose combinations of sexual, psychotic and personality disorders, mental retardation and addictions require that police keep track of them once they're identified. Giving them Viagra, Cialis and Levitra cannot help them or society.

All states administer their federally funded Medicaid programs independently. Despite a 1998 White House directive to the states to provide Medicaid coverage for impotence, 36 states don't. South Dakota classifies these drugs as fertility drugs, which it does not provide through Medicaid. Tennessee has decided that erectile dysfunction is not a condition that requires medical treatment.

Now the federal government has told states to stop providing these drugs to people who have been convicted of sex offenses. Common sense has prevailed.

Florida law provides for the "chemical castration" of repeat sexual offenders and gives judges the authority to impose the same sentence on any defendant convicted of sexual battery. These sexual offenders are given a weekly injection that reduces their sex drive.

One state is working to reduce the sex drives of sexual offenders while 14 other states have been helping to excite them.