Pubdate: Fri, 24 Jun 2005 Source: Winchester Sun (KY) Copyright: 2005 The Winchester Sun Contact: http://www.winchestersun.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1083 MORE SHOULD BE DONE TO CURB ONLINE DRUG SALES The Internet revolutionized the way the world does business. Unfortunately, it also seems to have revolutionized the way drug dealers do business. A series of reports in this week's editions of The Sun has shown how disturbingly easy it is for anybody to get prescription narcotics from online pharmacies. A minimal telephone consultation from a physician's assistant and old medical records were all it took for one online pharmacy to send 90 high-strength painkillers to a Sun reporter recently. One former drug dealer recounted how easy it was for her to get multiple shipments of narcotics shipped straight to her door, which were then put out on the streets, netting her hundreds of thousands of dollars. While being able to purchase an Optimus Prime cookie jar at midnight from the comfort of your couch on an online auction site may be harmless fun, being able to buy hundreds of prescription painkillers without seeing a doctor face to face is just wrong. Requiring doctors to see patients in person before prescribing powerful and addictive narcotics should be mandatory. Although some prescription mills still would allow patients to have whatever drug they want without a valid medical reason, those doctors are in the minority. Most physicians will not issue a prescription without a good reason, which would help limit the number of pills hitting the streets. A new state law went into effect Monday which should prohibit all but just a handful of online pharmacies from doing business in Kentucky. Internet pharmacies now must be licensed to sell and ship prescription drugs to Kentucky residents. But even legislators doubt the law's ability to stem the tide of narcotics flowing into the state. More should and must be done to put teeth into this new law. While law enforcement officers have for years trolled the Internet pretending to be children to ensnare would-be child molesters, the state needs to do the same for online pharmacies. Money, time and personnel need to be set aside for enforcement of this law. Let law enforcement agents go fishing on the Internet to see who will ship drugs to Kentucky illegally and once a violator is found, throw the book at them. The federal government also must do its part. The proposed Ryan Haight Internet Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2005, which places strict controls on Internet pharmacy sites, also needs to be passed. Rather than leave this issue to the states to assemble their own hodgepodge of laws, the federal government should take charge, as it has done with drugs such as marijuana. This is not an issue to be taken lightly. Drugs still are a tremendous problem all across America. Illegal drugs leave in their wake shattered lives and families. Winchester residents have died and will continue to die from them. Americans are flooded every day with e-mails from Internet pharmacies promising powerful drugs with little or no oversight from doctors. While there may be some benefit to online pharmacies for the disabled, the elderly or those in isolated places, they also can be a source for the thriving industry of drug trafficking. More restraints and tighter oversight must be placed upon these pharmacies. It should be harder to get painkillers like Lortab of Xanax than it is to check your e-mail. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth