US: New Bill Targets Rogue Druggists On The Internet

President Bush is set to sign legislation that will help the federal government crack down on hundreds of rogue Internet pharmacies that peddle controlled substances like the painkiller Vicodin or the stimulant Ritalin.

The bill reflects growing concern among parents and public-health experts that certain online pharmacies enable almost anyone to purchase drugs with a few mouse clicks and without seeing a doctor or getting a valid prescription. Experts believe the Web sites are fueling an increase in the abuse of prescription drugs, especially among teenagers.

The legislation, approved by Congress last month, aims to make it harder for people to obtain the drugs by prohibiting online pharmacies from dispensing medications to anyone without a valid prescription from a doctor who has examined the purchaser in person at least once. It would have little effect on legal online pharmacies, such as drugstore.com and the sites of pharmacy chains Walgreen Co. and CVS Caremark Corp. that already impose such rules on their customers.

Regulators say the new law is intended in part to strengthen the federal government's ability to enforce existing statutes and make clear how they apply to the Internet. "This is really making explicit what has been implicit," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat and the bill's lead sponsor in the Senate. "We've tried to close this loophole by essentially addressing this problem of controlled substances being sold without any medical oversight or prescription."

The bill has limitations, however. For one, it's not aimed at online pharmacies based outside the country. Also, the bill also doesn't address non-controlled prescription drugs, such as the erectile-dysfunction drugs Viagra and Cialis, hair-loss drug Propecia, painkiller Celebrex and muscle relaxant Soma that are popular on rogue sites. Finally, the bill does not create new requirements for Internet search engines, credit-card companies or package-delivery concerns whose services are used in online pharmacy transactions.

Abuse of prescription medicines is beginning to rival that of illegal drugs as a public health worry. From 1992 to 2006, the number of people who admitted abusing controlled prescription drugs doubled to 15.8 million, according to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. That is more than the combined number of people who reported abusing cocaine, hallucinogens, inhalants and heroin.

Teenagers are especially vulnerable. In 2006, 2.2 million teens between ages 12 and 17 admitted abusing a prescription drug in the past year. While the role of rogue online pharmacies is hard to quantify, Joseph Califano, president of the center at Columbia, says they are a "significant" part of the problem, in part because college students can get online orders sent to their mailboxes without parents' knowledge. Teenagers also get drugs out of their parents' medicine cabinets, he says.

The Drug Enforcement Administration says that a relatively small percentage of people get controlled drugs illegally over the Internet, but that they frequently get them in large quantities -- 100 to 120 pills at a time, compared to just a handful from friends or pilfered from pill bottles at home. The DEA also believes these pharmacies are an "upstream" source of the drugs, meaning they sell them to individuals who then deal them to others. Potential for Abuse

Controlled substances are policed by the DEA because of their potential to be abused or lead to addiction. Those popular on the Internet include stimulants such as Adderall and Ritalin, painkillers such as Vicodin and OxyContin, depressants such as Xanax and Valium, and the weight-loss drug phentermine.
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