Please nobody get loopy after reading this article. This explains exactly what happens when the DEA does take the time to bring down an Online Pharmacy operation it feels is operating outside the law. It also looks like the reporter didn't get a lot of things right.

U.S. says Web site sold prescriptions illegally

Published January 23, 2005

U.S. says Web site sold prescriptions illegally

Prosecutors say government should have profits from shipments of controlled drugs

By JEFF ECKHOFF
REGISTER STAFF WRITER

Federal prosecutors in Iowa want to keep $4.6 million seized from Florida and Puerto Rican banks, money they say represents profit from an Internet site that illegally sold drugs to people in at least 47 states.

Authorities say the Web site was used to ship narcotics and other controlled substances across the country through a network of 17 pharmacies. Some of the prescriptions were filled at the Union Family Pharmacy, a Dubuque drugstore that was raided by government agents in 2003.

The hunt for the cash was helped by information from the site's former customers, including several Iowa addicts named in court papers.

A former Des Moines nurse who says she has beaten a two-year addiction to Hydrocodone, a pain-relieving narcotic, said "it would be a shame to prosecute me for something that I thought was not illegal."

To date, none of the customers or pharmacy officials have been charged with crimes, although three Iowa pharmacists faced discipline from regulators. Union Family closed for several months but has since reopened under new ownership.

Five recent lawsuits filed in federal court in Cedar Rapids target 30 bank accounts and five certificates of deposit.

Prosecutors say the money belongs to executives with Pharmacom Inc. of Miami and physicians the company hired to write prescriptions via Buymeds.com.

Pharmacom officials could not be reached for comment. Prosecutors have declined to discuss details of the case.

Court documents say Union Family Pharmacy, under a contract with Buymeds.com, filled and shipped approximately 5,172 prescriptions over a 25-day period in 2003. Nearly 95 percent of the orders were for controlled substances.

Federal court papers say the prescriptions were filled out by Florida doctors based on information typed into the Web site, then placed on a server where they could be downloaded from pharmacies.

U.S. government regulations don't allow prescriptions to be transmitted electronically unless the pharmacist verifies information with the doctor, according to court documents.

Iowa authorities say physicians also are required to examine the person who receives the drugs.

Court papers say roughly half of the more than 400 buymeds.com customers interviewed by Iowa investigators say they never had contact with any doctor.

Documents say one undercover investigator, after he requested drugs from the Web site, was referred to a West Des Moines hotel lobby. The investigator then was asked 10 questions by a licensed practical nurse referred to as "Gary the collector," who also wrote down the man's weight, pulse and blood pressure.

The former Des Moines addict, who asked that she not be identified, told an Iowa Pharmacy Board investigator two years ago that she had no medical condition that required Hydrocodone. The woman, who now contends that she does need medication for a neck-related injury, told investigators that "her only source of drugs was via the Internet, since she was so well known in Iowa as a drug addict that no physician in Iowa would prescribe for her." The list of ex-customers includes a former Ames attorney, who allegedly confessed his drug addiction after he learned of the federal investigation.

The man, who has not been charged and has since moved to Minnesota, could not be reached for comment.