No prescription
needed
More than three-quarters of Web sites that sell
highly addictive medications that do not require customers to provide a prescription.
Apparently it is a doddle to get your paws on morphine
and oxycodone, and stimulants such as amphetamine, according to Columbia
University researchers. Joseph Califano, who heads Columbia's National Center
on Addiction and Substance Abuse said that of the 365 sites selling
controlled substances online 85 percent did not require a doctor's
prescription.
The number of online establishments flogging the drugs
fell 37 percent from last year, due to coppers' efforts to crack down on
online drug trafficking, the report said. More than 80 percent of all
online prescriptions are for controlled substances, compared with just 11
percent of prescriptions filled at traditional pharmacies, according to the
DEA.
The Senate earlier this year passed a bill that would explicitly ban
the acquisition of highly regulated drugs over the Internet without a
prescription.
