Questions about online drug vendors

[Catalyst]

My girlfriend is looking for some information and asked me to post the following:

[hopefully this isn’t against board rules]

A very dear visiting friend was taken by my mother to the hospital
earlier today after a car accident in our neighborhood, resulting from
an Ambien overdose. Over the phone this afternoon at the hospital
Mother told me that Patty, our friend, had taken at least 13 pills.
Through her stupor, Patty apparently admitted that she’d been taking
the drugs for a while now - a whole lot of unusual behavior over her
visits in the past 6 months makes a lot more sense.

While discussing what had happened with Catalyst, I began to
wonder where Patty would have gotten what seems to be a steady source
of a prescription drug like that - I’d always thought it was given
short-term. I’ve had problems sleeping off and on for most of my life,
and two of the doctors I’ve had have warned me about the possible
addiction issues that come with taking a sleep aid like Ambien.
They’ve always come up with lots of possible solutions to try before a
prescription sleep drug, and I’ve never had to take any. Because of
that I was pretty surprised that a good doctor would prescribe a sleep
aid for six months, until I googled Ambien. The first two sponsored
links feature pharmacy sites that will sell you Ambien online. (I have
no idea how Patty got her drugs, and I’m not trying to pin anyone’s
mistakes on these websites. I’m just curious about them, that’s all.)
I’ve heard that there are sites that will not only sell, but also
prescribe the morning after pill or birth control. I didn’t sign up
for the Ambien sites, but I’d like to know if they will issue a
prescription as well as sell the drug. How legitimate are sites that
sell prescription drugs this way? Are there any restrictions placed on
them? Is there any information on the possible danger that people who
could be addicts are shopping for drugs online, or is there anything
to stop someone from getting several prescriptions at one time from
separate sites? Is anyone doing anything about pharmacy sites as a
result of problems they might have caused?

Thanks for any information you can offer.

[FatBaldGuy]

The way that most of these online pharmacies work is that they have a licensed MD either on their staff or as a contractor who “consults” with the patient and prescribes the medication. The “consultation” consists of the patient filling out an online medical questionnaire. After they have charged your credit card, the questionnare is reviewed by the doctor. Theoretically, if any red flags pop up he will not prescribe, but in most cases it is just a rubber-stamp approval. The pharmacy then sends your pills by FedEx and everyone is happy.

[Barbarian]

I just got an Ambien prescription on Friday from my GP, and it calls for 30 pills with six refills-- this is way more than I will ever take. I doubt I’ll go through that first bottle in two years.