DrugBuyers.Com: Internet Drug Businesses Under Investigation

Internet Drug Businesses Under Investigation
Widow Thinks Husband Died From Drugs

POSTED: 5:35 p.m. PDT May 16, 2003
UPDATED: 6:05 p.m. PDT May 16, 2003

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Did a Northern California man -- a former marathon athlete --die after taking powerful drugs obtained over the Internet?

As online pharmacies explode on the Internet, fears are growing about the dangers they could pose.

After watching a special report KCRA 3 first reported last week, a Sacramento widow contacted KCRA, wanting to talk about alleged illegal Internet drugs that she thinks killed her husband.

James Lewis was only 47 when he died. Two investigations of his death are under way -- one by the Sacramento County Coroner's Office and one by the Medical Board of California. They have reached no conclusions yet, but Lewis's widow, Elizabeth Carr, says she is pretty sure she knows what happened.

The former "iron man" competitor had two knee operations and a hip injury that left him in considerable pain, according to Carr. She says he wanted to manage that pain himself.

"It's way too easy to get this stuff, and people don't know. I think he thought he could handle this," Carr said.

Lewis died in April after falling asleep on his couch.

"There was no obvious cause of death. So it's likely this case will depend on the toxicology studies to hopefully give us a more definitive cause of death," Sacramento County assistant coroner Ed Smith said.

Carr said that she found empty foil wrappers for dozens of pills, mostly codeine -- a strong narcotic painkiller that can be addictive. She says she also found wrappers for Valium and Alprax, both anti-anxiety drugs.

The Internet is flooded with online pharmacies, some based overseas and boldly offering narcotics like codeine without a prescription. It's illegal to receive narcotics that are created with opium without a license. But the drugs still make it into the United States disguised as innocent packages. The come from, among other places, New Delhi, India and the French island of Martinique.

"Two weeks after he died, I think I got the first one. I actually opened it up to see, and it was more of the codeine. And then I got another the next day. So I got four total," Carr said.

Carr says Lewis tried to be his own doctor and pharmacist.

"I think it was a combination of the fact that he was up to a high dosage, I think on the codeine, and then he took something that interacted, because he said he didn't feel well," Carr said.

Carr says she will turn all of evidence over to state investigators.

The state medical board is also beginning an investigation into Lewis' death. The board is attacking illegal online pharmacies by going after cyber-doctors who write prescriptions for patients they never seen. But going after overseas drug sellers is much more difficult -- that takes federal enforcement.