You’ve Got Drugs

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University released a white paper report in July of 2008 titled, "You Got Drugs".  The paper, whose title is obviously a take-off on the popular movie, You Got Mail, is a report on the ease at which prescription drugs can be obtained by anyone, even minors, over the Internet.  The CASA report was also the subject of many articles in the press including several July 9, 2008 stories by the Associated Press, The New York Times and WebMD.

The white paper report starts off with a letter from CASA president, Joseph A. Califano, Jr., who notes that CASA, "..has been tracking the availability of controlled prescription drugs over the Internet. This work is designed to examine the online availability of dangerous and addictive prescription opioids like OxyContin and Vicodin, depressants like Valium and Xanax, and stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall."

The study finding noted that 85% of the sites selling controlled prescription drugs do not require a physician's prescription from the patient. Of the remaining sites that do require a prescription, half of them allowed faxes which could be easily faked.  Sadly, the report also noted that there were no controls in place to block the sale of these drugs to children.

One of the difficulties noted in the report was that the websites selling these drugs open and close regularly making enforcement near impossible.  Michael Sanders, a spokesman for the US Drug Enforcement Administration explained, "One of the main problems is that the sites can literally open up for a week, close and open up under a different name."

Federal legislation is currently in discussion, and the report noted that 8 states have passed laws concerning online prescriptions. Other solutions addressed by the CASA report involve working with financial institutions to see if there could be a way to prevent credit card purchases.  Additionally, it is suggested that the large search engines can play a part by developing ways to restrict these bogus online pharmacies from showing up on search engines.

Probably the most telling number of this report is that an overwhelming majority of the drugs sold online do not come from legitimate sources.  CASA president, Mr. Califano noted, "This year CASA identified a total of 365 sites, including 206 advertising sites and 159 sites offering these drugs for sale. Only two of the selling sites were certified by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy as legitimate Internet pharmacy practice sites; the other 157 were rogue sites."