- All it takes is a credit card in one hand, a mouse in
the other and a few choice words on an internet search engine.
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- With those simple steps, you will be ready to take your
pick from thousands of powerful medicines.
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- Treatments for acne, cancer, impotence and heart disease.
Drugs that are generally only available with a prescription.
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- However, the advent of the internet and its hundreds
if not thousands of e-pharmacies means that is no longer always the case.
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- While the internet is home to many legitimate pharmacies,
its also home to a growing number of pharmacies that operate illegally
selling drugs to anyone willing to pay for them.
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- A quick internet search unearths countless sites offering
unlimited supplies of drugs without a prescription.
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- They ask only for credit card details and for customers
to wait "between 10 and 21 days".
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- Some even provide customers with an A to Z of the hundreds
of medicines on offer.
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- These range from Abolon, an anabolic steroid, to Zyprexa
for schizophrenia.
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- A growing market
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- A survey by the UK's National Audit Office earlier this
year suggested as many as 600,000 Britons have bought prescription medicines
over the internet.
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- In the United States, an estimated one million people
buy their medication in this way.
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- There are no accurate figures on how many people buy
these medicines over the net without a prescription.
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- But with more sites appearing every week, it would be
fair to suspect that it is a growing market.
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- Doctors are becoming increasingly concerned.
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- "There are potentially very serious risks of getting
medication over the internet," says Dr George Rae of the British Medical
Association.
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- "All drugs have potential side-effects. There is
also serious problems if you take medication on top of anything else.
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- "Buying medicines over the internet also means there
is no assurance about quality. It is inherently dangerous."
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- This week, the mother of a 24-year-old man who killed
himself after buying drugs online urged the British government to tackle
the problem.
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- At one point, Liam Brackell was receiving 300 anti-depressant
tablets in the post every day. By the time of his death, he had tried 23
different types of prescription drugs.
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- International crackdown
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- Governments and international agencies are trying to
shut down rogue e-pharmacies. However, they appear to be fighting a losing
battle.
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- In the UK, anyone found guilty of selling such drugs
can face an unlimited fine and up to two years in prison.
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- To date, there have been just three successful prosecutions
against people running UK-based e-pharmacies, which did not operate within
the law.
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- The UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory
Agency has managed to have seven websites shut down over the past few years.
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- However, it receives between 10 and 15 reports of unlawful
operators every month and websites start up as quickly as they close.
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- Customs and Excise officials can seize controlled medicines
that are sent through the post without proper documentation.
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- They can also seize medicines that are not described
accurately.
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- "If we do find them, we seize them," says a
spokeswoman. "But they are among thousands of packages coming through
everyday."
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- The problem is an international one and governments have
started to work together to try to tackle it.
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- "Other countries are also concerned about the risk
to public health," says a spokesman from the UK's Department of Health.
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- "We work closely with other regulatory authorities
in the EU and the US."
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- Industry concern
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- The pharmaceutical industry says it is concerned but
powerless.
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- "These are prescription medicines and they are prescription
medicines for a reason," says a spokeswoman for the Association of
the British Pharmaceutical Industry.
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- "People should not be taking these medicines without
medical advice," she says.
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- "We are working with the regulatory authorities
and we are happy to do anything we can to help. But really there isn't
very much we can do."
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- The fact remains, the internet and e-pharmacies are to
a large extent a law onto themselves.
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- Websites that operate in countries with tight rules can
be shut down.
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- However, others are more than happy to base themselves
elsewhere, in countries without such laws.
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- As one website put it: "You do not need a prescription
to by (sic) our products as we work under the laws of the countrys (sic)
we ship from".
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- The logistics suggest that even a concerted international
effort will ultimately fail.
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- "This is not just about the UK. It is international.
It is worldwide," says Dr Rae.
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- "Bringing this under control may be difficult if
not impossible"
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- He suggests that educating patients could be one way
of tackling the issue.
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- "We need to get the message across that this is
potentially very dangerous. We need to educate patients.
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- "The implications of buying medicines over the internet
is potentially profound."
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- © BBC MMIII
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- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3123449.stm
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