I just fill out a form?! How the hell is this legal? I thought (perhaps mistakenly) that there had to be some minimal due diligence standard before a doctor could prescribe non-OTC medication.
"You will receive your product within 24 to 48 business hours after physicians approval. A US Registered Physician will review your order application within 24 business HOURS to determine if you can be approved for a prescription. THERE IS NO CHARGE TO YOU FOR THE PHYSICIAN’s CONSULTATION IF YOU ARE NOT APPROVED !
Get a prescription and order securely online. Delivered to your home or office. Licensed US Medical Doctors review your online form. Licensed pharmacists will fill and ship your prescription. FDA approved prescription medications Receive your order in 24-48 hours after physicians approval
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I’m pretty sure that doctors are allowed to prescribe things without actually seeing the patient. But doing it over the Internet for serious medications is rather unethical.
I know you can go to Mexico and get RX antibiotics at Mexican drugstores but self ordered RX prescriptions over the phone? Wow! I never knew you could do that.
It’s not ethical for a US doctor to prescribe for a patient that he doesn’t have a relationship with. Often it’s not legal, either. Generally a relationship means a patient the doc has personally interviewed and examined. Extenuating circumstances can be considered, if the patient is just changing docs and needs continuation of meds, but the implication is that the doc and patient will get together to formalize the relationship soon.
Here in Wisconsin, a number of docs got disciplined by the State medical examining board, and prosecuted by the law for prescribing viagra on-line. Heard it happened in other states, too.
Nowadays most sites that try these things use foreign docs, where the law is vague or non-existant about this type of prescribing. As I understand it, the patient can be busted for taking delivery of said drugs. If it’s a bunch of Amoxicillin, noone will care much, but I know one guy who had Xanax shipped in from the far east, and got into much trouble.
…but I will tell you that one of my closest friends brought me a few pages he’d printed off the web a couple of weeks ago. It was an order sheet for a set-up like this. The “doctors” were working through a pharmacy called “The Pill Box” where pain pills and downers (can’t remember all of them, but my buddy was particularly intersted in the Lortabs, Percocets, and Valium) were available in fairly large quantities pretty cheap. I’m not sure if he ordered them or not (I tried to talk him out of it, the whole process kind of scared me). I’ll see him tonight. If there was an interesting outcome, I’ll post it.
Doctor visits may be an insurance issue. He might be liable if he prescibes something too strong or mis-diagnoses and prescribes the wrong thing.
Doctors prescribe based on phone calls with their existing patients. In this case, they know the patient’s general health and history. So giving a prescription without a doctor visit is accepted.
For simple prescriptions, an on-line form should be enough as long as it detailed enough that a doctor can use it for initial screening. He can then issue a prescription, email back more questions, or tell you to visit a doctor.
Legally, doctors have lots of freedom with prescriptions. Ethically, they are supposed to be concerned with the patient’s health. While he should not help you abuse drugs, those drugs do have ligitimate uses.
The sites are legal. They ask you questions any doctor would and if you answer wrong you won’t get your drugs.
I don’t find it any more unethical than some of the HMOs I had. When I had Humana not only did I not see the same doctor twice. When I got sick I would call the nurse would take my symptoms then the doctor would call back and prescribe meds over the phone. I never physically saw a doctor for over a year.
I had insurance thru Mass Mutual and they sent me to a new doctor when I hurt my back working out. I went in described the pain and the guy gave me some muscle relaxant and never ONCE asked me what other meds I might be on.
I was on blood pressure and asthma meds at the time but he NEVER asked. I waited but he never did. Then I asked him…
As for these sites they WAY overcharge. They want $50.00 for valium. You can get a bottle for $16.00 her and 4.50 generic here in Illinois.
You will note most of them only offer meds like weight loss and Viagra.
Re: the mexico connection.
If your DR. has prescribed medication you can legally have it filled in Mexico and shipped here. My doc actually suggested it because it is cheaper and I carry no med ins. If not, contact a Mexican doctor and have him prescibe the med (they can often be found in Mexican pharmacys). But really what you are doing is either self-medicating (bad idea) or looking for recreational drug sources (bad - but not as bad idea). If that’s the case , for much less than the cost of a doctors visit you can find a Mex pharm willing to sell you whatever you want. One hitch, people tend to get ripped off that way.