May 5, 2003
Online Drugs: Do you get what you pay for?

Junkies used to get their drugs solely from the streets illegally. Now you can order them legally from pharmacies that break the law sending them to you. Dangerous chemicals like Valium for stress or Phentermine for weight control can be bought without a prescription. KATU went online and within days, received both drugs without a prescription.

But can you trust what you get?

KATU put its online drug order to the test and found a little pill can become a danger when you buy drugs online without a prescription.

Addiction specialist Dr. Brad Anderson says about half of his patients that used to get opiates like heroin from the street, now get legal opiates online.

"More and more," said Dr. Anderson, "Yes, we see patients who report to us the medicine they're not getting from a doctor they're getting over the Internet."

While it's legal to buy and sell the drugs online it's not legal to import them into the US. The Valium KATU purchased is from Mexico, and was marked as documents. The Phentermine came illegally from Florida.

Phentermine is a very, very close cousin to methamphetamine.

Forensic scientist Dr. Ray Grimsbo says if a pharmacy is willing to break the law to sell drugs, how can you trust them to send you what you thought you bought.

KATU had him test the Phentermine.

Ground into a powder, the Phentermine is put into a testtube. Liquid is added and then it's run through a series of tests against a control.

While tests run, Dr. Grimsbo expresses why he thinks buying medication without a prescription online is so dangerous.

"I can just go online and go to one [website], get a dose," explained Dr. Grimsbo. "Go to another, get a dose, and no one knows because they don't check."

No one checks because it's nearly impossible on the Internet. Without checks, drug purchases can lead to addiction and a visit to Dr. Anderson.

"People's lives fall apart when they get these medications," said Dr. Anderson. "They're not treating themselves, they're not using the medicine to treat an illness. It's a substance which is causing a disease which we call addiction."

Tests on the drug purchased by KATU identified that it was most likely the phentermine that we paid for.

But doctors say taking drugs without a prescription is a real problem.

"Potentially, the wrong medication getting to the wrong patient without the right care and that's a real problem," said Dr. Scott Field who is an O.H.S.U. Family Physician. A problem that can potentially get worse as more and more pharmacies go on line.

The food and drug administration is the agency in charge of keeping drugs like we got from arriving without a legal prescription.

The FDA declined to comment on our story.