The 21st Century Drug Pushers

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The 21st Century Drug Pushers

Controlled drugs, such as pain relievers, tranquilizers, stimulants, and sedatives, can too easily be bought illegally over the Internet.

The Drug pushers of today are no longer standing in the alleyways or driving through the ghettos or even the suburbs pushing illegal drugs like Heroin or Crack Cocaine. Now they’re on the internet and “offering prescription drugs like vicodin or oxycontin to just about anybody who calls.

Anyone – including children – can readily obtain dangerous controlled substances from online pharmacies. All they need is access to a computer and a credit card. The check and security provided by our local pharmacists in local pharmacies -- those who have served Americans for generations and helped us get well and keep us well -- is not always replicated online.

The White Paper, “You’ve Got Drugs!” IV:Prescription Drug Pushers on the Internet, released on the internet from the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on “Rogue Online Pharmacies: The Growing Problem of Internet Drug Trafficking,” found a total of 581 Web sites advertising or selling controlled prescription drugs in 2007 compared to 342 sites in 2006.

Sites advertising controlled prescription drugs increased by 135 percent, from 168 in 2006 to 394 in 2007. Sites selling these drugs increased by seven percent from 174 in 2006 to 187 in 2007.

Other findings in the White Paper include:

84 percent of sites selling these drugs did not require a prescription.
Of the 16 percent that claimed to require a prescription, most (57 percent) simply ask that it be faxed, allowing a customer to forge it or use the same prescription many times to load up on these drugs.
Over the past four years, the number of sites selling controlled prescription drugs has increased steadily from 154 in 2004 and 2005 to 187 in 2007.
Benzodiazepines (Xanax and Valium) continue to be the most frequently offered controlled prescription drug, sold on 79 percent of the sites; followed by opioids (Vicodin and OxyContin) on 64 percent of the sites.
There are no controls stopping sale of these drugs to children.”

CASA Columbia

Definitions of Terms Used

Term	Description
Benzodiazepines	A class of drugs used in medicine as minor tranquilizers which is frequently prescribed to treat anxiety. They are central nervous system depressants and are subject to abuse.
Crack Cocaine	A chemically altered form of cocaine that is smoked.
Drug	Any substance, other than food, that changes the function or structure of the body or mind when ingested. Drugs essentially are poisons. The degree they are taken determines the effect. A small amount acts as a stimulant. A greater amount acts as a sedative. A larger amount acts as a poison and can kill one dead. This is true of any drug. Each has a different amount at which it gives those results.
Heroin	The potent, widely abused opiate that produces a profound addiction. It consists of two morphine molecules linked together chemically.