Copyright 1999 The Omaha World-Herald Company
Omaha
World-Herald
June 21, 1999, Monday SUNRISE EDITION
SECTION: ;EDITORIAL; Pg. 6
LENGTH: 329 words
HEADLINE:
Internet Drug Mills Raise Questions
BYLINE: 2
BODY:
Kansas authorities have taken on the task of
trying to police a questionable business, the illegal sale of
prescription drugs via the Internet.
Investigators for Attorney General Carla Stovall used the Internet to
buy drugs usually available only by prescription. Some Internet companies offer
on-line "doctors," who are not licensed in the states in which their "patients"
reside. Those doctors prescribe drugs, which are then filled by on-line
pharmacies (also not licensed in the patient's state) and mailed.
Viagra, a drug used to counter impotency but which is potentially
dangerous to men with certain medical conditions, is readily available on the
net. Controlled substances, such as the diet drug Meridia, can also be obtained.
In one test of the Internet system organized by Kansas officials, a minor using
his actual age and his mother's credit card was able to buy Meridia and Viagra.
Stovall has filed suit against the doctors and companies. She said
prescription mills in the hundreds send pharmaceuticals into Kansas. Many other
states face similar on-line issues, including the regulation of Internet
gambling and the question of sales taxes on Internet purchases.
People
who want to buy prescriptions on the Internet don't have much sympathy with
state officials such as Stovall. They are not as concerned as Stovall is with
the potentially lethal consequences of long-distance diagnosis and treatment by
doctors who typically rely on typed answers to brief questions, rather than
physical examinations of patients.
Stovall isn't concerned about the
on-line pharmacies that fill legitimate prescriptions issued by personal
physicians. It is the prescription mills, which churn out drugs with little
regard for the people who are receiving them, that need scrutiny. The progress
of Stovall's lawsuits could help guide other states as they wrestle with how
much control they can exert over the Internet.
LOAD-DATE: June 21, 1999
