Surfing for drugs: Internet pharmacies have proliferated, offering consumers cheap, mail-order drugs. But some are less than reputable, leading states to set stiff regulations.

AuthorGordon, Dianna

V-I-C-O-D-I-N Is Here! That's the subject line on tens of thousands of e-mail messages offering easy access to drugs that can be dangerous--even fatal--to the consumer who orders them. And states are doing something about it.

There are legitimate, online pharmacies that are licensed to sell prescription drugs by the states in which they operate. Users submit, via email, credit card and insurance information, as well as valid prescriptions. Ordering drugs online is convenient and saves time and trouble. Consumers also can use the Internet to comparison shop drug prices at home. For example, the cost of painkiller Vicodin (30 tablets) is $22.99 from Walgreen's online pharmacy (shipping and handling not included); $31.99 at a local store.

But there is the shady side.

A 52-year-old Illinois man with episodes of chest pain and a family history of heart disease died of a heart attack in 1999 after buying the impotence drug Viagra from ah online source that required only answers to a questionnaire to qualify for a prescription. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials say that if he had seen a doctor, face to face, health problems such as heart disease could have been detected and proper treatment prescribed.

Another Internet customer overdosed on hydrocodone (the main ingredient in Vicodin) and was hospitalized for nine months; another developed liver damage after receiving multiple orders of the painkiller Darvocet, prescribed by online physician Earnesto Cantu. The doctor was addicted to painkillers himself and is now serving time in Texas after writing prescriptions for online drugs.

In fact, Cantu wrote thousands of prescriptions, approving a million doses of hydrocodone and other dangerous drugs, according to Texas court records. To feed his own habit, he earned as much as $1,500 a day for writing Internet prescriptions. In nearly eight months, he made $147,000. He was arrested, sentenced to six years on state charges and is awaiting sentencing on a federal charge that could add an additional five years in prison.

Internet drug sales can be dangerous unless closely monitored. There is vast potential for pharmacists, consumers and even doctors to abuse the system. Online pharmacies can provide potentially false, unapproved, tainted of substandard products and have little of no quality control. On the user's side, people can receive multiple prescriptions for addictive medications, such as painkillers.

The U.S. General Accounting Office...

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