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.
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MAP posted-by: Beth