Iranian Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine

The first step in battling against prevention and control of a social phenomenon is to distinguish it completely and clearly. Designing the information system of substance abuse, with the aim of converting data into information and knowledge, consists a great share in prevention and control of addiction, but it is faced with challenges and problems which have unpleasant and inappropriate consequences on consumer abusers. Therefore, this article is written with the purpose of studying the medical ethics challenges of information system of substance abuse.
The present research is a review of studies. The needed information is gathered form Medline, Ovid, Elsevier, Google and Pubmed search engines and also from Police Information and Statistic Centre, Ministry of Health, and Medical Education, Welfare Organization and National drug Studies centre.
Substance abuse information system has several legal and ethical problems that if they occur, abusers will show no zest for receiving any consulting and medical services and also participating in epidemiological studies.
World Health Organization has provided a special framework in eight compasses including respect for human dignity, secrecy and privacy policy, to respond to the health information system.
Before arranging the schedule, designers and programmers of  substance abuse information system should provide and codify the rules, regulations and necessary instructions to clarify and determine the legal status, in order to guarantee the secrecy and privacy policy of information.