I was just involved in a conversation with my Aunt, who seems to think that it’s perfectly legal to buy prescription medication (painkillers and valium) online, simply because they send her spam in her inbox.
I got into a discussion with her about it and it got rather heated, but since I couldn’t whip out anything to the contrary of her notion, she assumes she’s correct.
I said that it was illegal because it was interstate narcotics trafficing and she rebutted by saying that is only illegal for them.
In any event, what’s the story? She’s living in Va and this “dealer” is an online pharmacy in Canada. I’m not entirely sure about what she’s actually getting, but she’s told me that it is prescription strength and that she needed a prescription in VA to get it (which she had, but apparently going to the doctor’s was too “difficult”).
Milwaukee just opened a pharmacy in the city that uses Canadian drug suppliers as the “middle-man”. They can get the drugs cheaper than other local stores. The pharmacist at the counter would verify the scrip.
It sounds like they are getting the drugs directly from Canada and by-passing their US sources.
Not sure how all of this is legal, including your Aunt`s situation.
I know Meatros probably doesn’t know anything about this, but whuckfistle probably will. In Mexico, you can buy drugs at pharmacies without a scrip since the pharmacists can write the scrips themselves. Basically you can just ask for valium or vicodin or whatever because “your foot hurts” and they’re gonna give it to you (at least that’s how I always understood it). In Milwaukee, there’s a Mexican grocery store called El Rey which was raided (another story) by the police for using this practice. Basically, they got in a lot of trouble for selling prescription drugs without a prescription. (BTW this was just narcotics, this was other drugs like Antibiotics, which we all know will crate a super bacteria that will take over the world if not taken correctly). I’ll have to find a cite and see if the people buying the drugs got in trouble too. Even though this is intrastate instead of interstate it may still prove your point.
Hmm the only articles I could find, they only mentioned employees getting arrested. BUT How about this. On the bottom of more prescription bottle labels it says something to the extent of…CAUTION: Federal Law prohibits the transfer of this drug to any person other then the patient for whom it was prescibed. So here’s the first question. Does she have a prescription. No, then that should help prove your point. Yes, then it get’s fuzzy. Did the canadian doctor that she’s never seen write it for a small fee, or was it written in her homestate. Maybe QtM or Q.E.D. will be along to help clear this up.
Joey, I don’t think she got a prescription for the Canadian pharmacist because she didn’t want to go through the hassle of it down here (even though she assured me that she had a valid reason for it :rolleyes:).
Incidently, is it illegal to get antibiotics without a prescription?
The problem here is that auntie is importing controlled substances without having the proper paperwork, like DEA approval, legitimate prescriptions, etc. The DEA gets touchy about that, and people who have done such things have ended up doing time in Federal prison.
Occasionally the government will bestir itself to crack down on the importation of non-controlled substances which still require prescriptions (like antibiotics and blood pressure meds, etc) but it is the narcotics traffickers (and that’s what they’ll call auntie) that get special attention.
Here’s the US Customs page on importing medications, although this is more geared toward travelers who are bringing medication with them.
And the FDA page on the subject.
Most online pharmacies intrepret this to mean that importing a 90-day supply of a drug for personal use is OK, except for controlled substances such as narcotics.
I would be very leery of anyone claiming they’ll ship you narcotics (even with a prescription), not so much due to any legal implication, but rather because I’d be worried the drug was counterfeit.
Even drugs that are OTC in Canada (222’s, Tylenol 2) don’t seem to appear on the online pharmacies anymore.
These online pharmacies operate within the letter of the law by asking the customer to fill out a medical questionnaire which is then reviewed by a doctor on staff who issues a prescription. Not exactly the best medical practice, but it is strictly legal.
I’m with zoltar7. It’s recently been found that those… enlargement pills you can get from spam are… gaspnot of medical quality!!!
Yes, it’s true. The wares hawked by the scum-sucking purveyors of spam known as mass-emailers have problems with them. Look at it this way: you don’t know jack squat about the company, or anyone in it. Do a DNS search on the domain name, and I’m pretty sure you’ll find something’s up. If some guy parked a truck on your block and tried selling pills door-to-door, would you buy any? I sure as hell wouldn’t, and at least in this case, I can get the guy’s license plate number!
There are very few places registered to do pharmacological business online. If you must buy online, make sure it’s from one of them. (And for #$*% sake don’t take their word for it)
Not sure about the legality of it all, but the primary reason for buying prescription meds from Canadian providers is price - Canadian meds cost about half for the exact same thing as in the States.
More anecdotal info: last night one of the major network news shows ran a sory about how the governor of Illinois is proposing a state-wide program of buying meds from Canadian providers for medicare, etc… patients in the state. Same deal there - cut medication costs by about half.