Prescription for Trouble: the Problem With Online Pharmacies

May 16, 2007 — -- A click of a mouse and there they are: a plethora of Web sites offering powerful prescription drugs for sale -- painkillers OxyContin and Vicodin, sedatives Valium and Xanax, stimulants Ritalin and Adderall.

And it's an all too familiar scenario for Francine Haight, who lost her 18-year-old son to a drug overdose in 2001.

"At a time we worried about our children being exposed to pornography and predators, marijuana and alcohol, we did not know that drug dealers were in our own family room," Haight told a Senate panel.

Ryan Haight overdosed on the painkillers Vicodin, Valium and morphine -- drugs he was able to purchase online by claiming he was a 21-year-old who had back pain from a car accident. The site's doctor and pharmacist -- who never personally consulted with Ryan -- were happy to fill the order.

"I am a parent that belongs to a club I never want to join," Haight testified. "I am an ordinary person who could be your neighbor, your co-worker or a member of your house of worship, but drugs took my son from me and some days the grief is still unbearable."

The Senate Judiciary Committee took up the issue in a hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill.

Senators noted that the problem is big -- and getting bigger. "If drug dealers came into our neighborhoods selling these kinds of drugs, Americans would be up in arms," said committee chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

Much to the dismay of Haight and legislators alike, the problem of unregulated online pharmacies appears to be growing.

"The Internet has become a pharmaceutical candy store… its shelves stacked with any array of addictive prescription drugs offering a high to any kid with a credit card at the click of a mouse," said Joseph Califano Jr., president of Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse.

A study from the center published this month found 581 Web sites advertising or selling controlled prescription drugs -- up from 342 found in 2006.