Can I really purchase pharmaceutical drugs over the internet legally and without a prescription and have them delivered to my house? There’s websites that certainly make it appear so, but… really?
If you check the small print on these sites you’ll see a warning that the laws of your own country apply and that the purchase of certain drugs may be illegal in some regions. In orher words, you buy them at your own risk.
I know someone that attempted to purchase the “little blue pill” over the internet. The day he expected the package to arrive all he received was a courtesy notice from the USPS that he had to pick up a package at his local post office. When he showed up to collect, he was instead escorted by a couple FBI agents to a waiting car. 9 days in jail and a $7,500 fine later, he learned his lesson. He was also out the $150 that he found out went to someone in India.
and of course you have no way of knowing what is in those pills. With luck it will be sugar. With bad luck it will be the wrong drug. You have no way to know.
Buyer beware!
I’ve been buying my more expensive meds from Canada for several years, and haven’t had a problem. And yes, I have to email them the prescriptions.
Getting prescription medication without a prescription is presumptively unlawful, but some ads do send that message. Here’s an article discussing the issue.
Sonofa…!!! WOW! Well thanks all for your replies and input.
That sounds like one of them urban legends. You know the “I know a friend…” type deal. First of all anyone can pick up a package. How would they know it was him? Second of all, what’s to prevent me from ordering a package like that to someone I don’t like and then sending it to his house. I think most people who got a note saying there was a package for them at the PO would go pick it up even if they weren’t expecting anything. Even a sign for package can be gotten through a proxy if said person directs it. And finally why would you order from any site that would require a signature/ID?
Why would the FBI waste time on such a trivial matter as this? I’ve worked in hotels and several times in the course of my careers we’ve had people using rooms for meth labs or hiding drugs and it was always the DEA not the FBI that did the raids.
I guess it’s possible, but it still sounds like one of them urban legends
Anyway…
If you look at websites a lot of them include an “online consultation” for a prescription. They will ask you questions and if you answer incorrectly they won’t fill your prescription. Of course it’s pretty easy to figure out HOW to answer it
Thus you in effect did get a prescription for them.
I get my inhalers overseas from NZ but I have a prescription for them. I just fax it over to a Christchurch pharmacy and my friend in Chch picks it up and mails it to me. Even with postage it’s less than $10.00, as opposed to around $50.00 here.
Especially when the postal service has its own inspectors with full law enforcement powers…
I know there’s people that go to Mexico for pharmaceutical drugs and get them cheap. Do they require a prescription to buy at the places there?
I don’t know if they bother to enforce this when the drug is something like Viagra, but it happens everyday with steroids.
My mother used to do that (when she was in her late 80s and still living in her own home). Then one day she passed out while walking to the post office and her doctor told her never, never to buy her medications that way again.
(But she did.)
For drugs such as antibiotics, no. We have a list of controlled sunstances, things that will get you high, that are prescription only. Some pharmacies sell them without a prescription but they are running a big risk.
Since I was going to ask this anyway and this post seems like a relevant place to do it, what about research chemicals such as 2c-I?
It’s a drug with reported psychedelic effects, similar to the perhaps more widely known research chemical 2c-b (which is illegal). Anyway, there are places online which offer things like this, but I wonder do they really? I heard a secondhand account of someone who tried to order 2c-I and was instead sent diazepam (Valium) powder. Having, er… seen the diazepam I can at least confirm that part, although after seeing the story written out I can’t help but be skeptical. So what’s the dope on world wide web dope?
Wow, I have no idea about that one. I’d never heard of either of those things. I must say though, that after looking them up, I must say that I may or may not be very interested in hearing a response to your question as well. :eek:
He is sitting next to me right now and will answer some questions. According to his lawyer, he did not violate any USPS rules or regulations. He was only charged with illegal importation of prescription meds and sale and distribution of presciption meds. He doesn’t know why it was the FBI that arrested him but he heard they were running a sting to catch people like him. Upon his arrest he was turned over to a federal holding facility in Seatac, Washington and was there for 9 days till he posted $10,000 bail. He says he never had any more contact with the FBI after that. Any contact he had with the feds after that was through the federal prosecutor’s office. If convicted of the original charges, he could have been sentenced to 5 years in prison and a hefty fine. His lawyer worked out a plea bargain for the days served, the fine, costs for his stay in jail and 5 years probation.
He said the part that aggravates him is when the chemical analysis came back the pills were cut to about 10% of their stated strength. Apparently there are pill factories in India and other places that remanufacture the pills by grinding good pills, adding filler and making new pills that look just like the originals. He is also grateful he did not lose his job, the day before his arrest he hit is vacation date and had over 200 hours of vacation to use.
A few years back, I ordered Codiene from a website. The first shipment arrived with no problems, but the second was intercepted. I simply received a letter from customs stating the pills were intercepted, and that I could send them a copy of my prescription to them, or do nothing and they would be seized. I chose the latter, and never heard anything back from them. I lost a few bucks, but avoided any trouble. Of course this was a controlled substance, so Viagara may be easier to obtain.
Were the FBI agents just waiting at the post office for him to come and collect? How did they know when he would come? He might not have been able to get to the post office until the next week.
I have successfully ordered Allegra (fexofenadine) from Canada, where it is over the counter, without a prescription. (Here it’s prescription, for reasons having more to do with FDA politics than safety.) I was always under the impression that that was actually legal, because it’s OTC there, rather than a sneaky trick. Since fexofenadine went generic, my insurance covers it again, and I haven’t bothered in a few years.
At the border towns I’ve been to, Nuevo Laredo for example, there are individuals lined up along the street that will facillitate the purchase of most prescription drugs. They’ll take you to a doctor, you tell him what you want, he writes the prescription, they’ll walk you to a pharmacia and you have what you came for in about 30 minutes.
These doctors don’t have a clue if you really suffer from the ailment they’re writing you a prescription for, nor do they probably even care. They want the fee you paid them for the script. It’s a complete sham, a mockery of the safeguards we have in place in the US.