Drug Abuse

In a recent news release out of Portland, OR, it was noted that the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is doing very little about identifying and ceasing the operations of rogue online pharmacies.  There are more than 1,000 of these websites that are continuing to sell addictive medications without a valid prescription.

Two years ago the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act was passed.  This was in response to the death of an 18 yr. old boy who purchased Vicodin and Xanax over the internet without a valid prescription.  The severe consequence of this breach of ethical behavior by online pharmacies gave the DEA enhanced authority to wage a battle against the illegal online pharmaceutical trade.

Regrettably, as of late 2010, the DEA had yet to file any cases under the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act. It appears that only a couple of cases have been filed to date. According to a senior DEA official, “the Internet is (no longer) as big of a problem”…and that “(the DEA) has not found many Internet pharmacies selling controlled substances.”  Is this just another case of bureaucrats ignoring the 8 ton elephant in the center of the room?  Why is it that an independent monitoring entity, such as LegitScript, can identify 1,000 rouge internet pharmacies operating illegally, and the DEA can’t seem to find many?  As the DEA sits on its hands, these rogue internet pharmacies continue to promote, sell and distribute controlled substances without valid prescriptions.  Consumers in the US are purchasing these illegal and dangerous drugs over the internet without having some basic assurances, such as:

– the benefit of a legitimate doctor-patient relationship
– the physical examination legally required prior to prescribing pharmaceuticals
– the necessary follow-up by an authorized health care professional to determine the drugs’ effectiveness in helping to restore/improve the consumer’s health
– verification of the age appropriateness of the online consumer?

Thanks to research studies conducted by Massachusetts General Hospital, we are aware that abuse of prescription drugs is increasing the fastest in regions which have the greatest expansion in high-speed Internet access.  One of the conclusions of the study was that increased access to rogue Internet pharmacies was to blame for this increase in prescription drug abuse.

LegitScript.com is the only Internet pharmacy monitoring program recognized by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP), and works with government agencies worldwide, search engines and other Internet companies to monitor online pharmaceutical sales.  John Horton is President of LegitScript and is quoted as saying, “We’re issuing this report because the DEA continues to take the unsupportable position that the rogue Internet pharmacy is all-but-solved.  Meanwhile, these Internet drug dealers continue to operate with impunity, laughing all the way to the bank.  Simply put, the DEA has failed to use the tools Congress gave it to fight this problem.”

The report is available at legitscript.com and legitscriptblog.com. More information about Ryan Haight and the law named after him is available at ryanscause.org.

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