DrugBuyers.Com: Buy Meds ... Bye Bye

Pharmacy linked to Internet sales ordered closed
DES MOINES (AP) A Dubuque pharmacy's license was suspended by Iowa regulators who allege the drug store was involved in selling drugs from the Virgin Islands over the internet.
The Iowa Board of Pharmacy declared the Union Family Pharmacy an immediate threat to the public. The Dubuque Drug Task Force and federal Drug Enforcement Agency officers took control of Union Family Pharmacy, immediately closing the prescription department.

In court papers filed Friday, the state pharmacy board said Union Family Pharmacy paired with Pharmacom LLC, a company in the U.S. Virgin Islands, to sell prescription drugs filling more than 4,750 prescriptions over the Internet.

"This was one of the first U.S.-based pharmacies using a local license to cooperate with a Web site outside the continental U.S. to sell medications," said Kevin Teale, spokesman for the Iowa Department of Public Health.

The moves comes as state and federal regulators are moving more aggressively to stop American citizens from buying foreign prescription drugs. On Thursday, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to close down a chain of 85 storefronts that help senior citizen purchase cheaper prescription medicines from Canada.

The pharmacy board said the arrangement allowed people to obtain dangerous and highly addictive drugs without a prescription and without a valid doctor-patient relationship to determine possible harmful effects of the drugs.

Among the drugs dispensed were diazepam, a sedative that can produce hypnotic effects, and hydrocodone, a pain killer, board documents said.

The drugs were dispensed verifying that the drugs were for legitimate medical reasons and without proper record keeping, the documents said.

Visitors to the Web site http://www.buymeds.com are asked to fill out a medical questionnaire, which the site says is "thoroughly reviewed by one of our US licensed physicians."

The store remained open Friday. An employee answering the business telephone said he was not authorized to comment. Store owner Jack Huzl has an unlisted telephone number and could not be reached for comment.

A message left at the home of the pharmacist in charge, Charles Wiebke, was not immediately returned.

Teale said the board disciplined Huzl in 1989 and in 1999 the pharmacy was placed on probation for not adequately counseling clients picking up medication.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.