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The 21st Century Drug Pushers |
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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
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