DrugBuyers.Com: Article on Yahoo's Main Page about Internet Pharma

What is this Best if kept off the board? They call US OP's with consults "rogue" sites? What does that mean?
Great, now the FDA and the DEA are forming a special task force to deal with the "growing tide of illicit drug sales on the internet."

Now I thought that this was still legal. Paying for a phone consult with a doctor who has reviewed your medical records is not a crime, at least I thought it wasn't. I thought that online pharmacies and physicians were legal if properly operated and licenced.

All of a sudden there is all of this bad press about OP's and how they deal in illicit drugs. Now "ILLICIT" implies that it is somehow wrong, dirty or illegal. Now I don't use international Op's which may be illegal, but now they are going after US OP's and Im scared.

MY god, if they shut down OP's, then could you imagine what our lives would be like. OP's have given me freedom, given me my life back and I have been empowered by them, knowing I don't have to go from doctor to doctor trying to get help for my pain. I mean I was to the point of doing something really illegal like calling in my own script or forging one, when I discovered this site and OP's.

Why can't the government leave us alone? I hope this new "task force" dosen't have to do with a certain conservative man who got busted recently.
Plus all these articles are so sensationalized.

I got this quote from the Washington Post article:

"For years, hydrocodone has been one of the most used and abused drugs, according to the DEA. Sales have soared, and so have thefts of the drug and hydrocodone-related emergency room admissions.

The street value of hydrocodone is also climbing, said Tony King, the agent in charge of the DEA's Louisville office. A single generic tablet that costs an online pharmacy 15 cents may be sold to Internet customers for $1.50. On the street, that same tablet may go for "$3 to $5," King said. Overall sales of hydrocodone in Kentucky have doubled in the past four years, to 120 million tablets.

The surge began a few years back, when doctors alarmed by OxyContin abuse began switching patients to hydrocodone, King said. "But hydrocodone is equally dangerous," he said. "It's kind of like: Do you use a .38- or .40-caliber gun to shoot yourself?"

OH - come on!! But then the article went on to say that most OP customers were drug dealers and that only a handful have legitimate pain problems. Here is that portion:

"A breakdown of prescriptiononline.com's sales by Zip code revealed that four of every 10 pills flowed into Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana and Kentucky. Those four states routinely rank among the top five nationally in the per-capita use of hydrocodone and Xanax, according to law enforcement data.

The pills poured into small towns. In Hope, Ky., with a population of 152, customers bought 7,910 pills -- an average of 52 pills for each resident. In Gunlock, Ky., population 430, customers bought 2,910 pills, about seven per person. By contrast, in Louisville, Kentucky's biggest city with a population of 206,239, customers bought 5,810 pills, about 0.03 per person.

In some cases, these orders went to multiple customers listed at the same address. For example, over five months 2,030 pills were shipped to five customers at one home in Baileyton, Ala. More than 80 percent were hydrocodone.

In an interview, Opsahl, the California physician who wrote the prescriptions, said he was aware that customers occasionally listed the same address, but not to the extent detailed in The Post analysis. "I didn't have that data at the time," he said, calling the information "very disturbing. You've presented some information that certainly gives me some pause how this whole system can be blatantly abused and easily abused."

Still, Opsahl maintained that most Internet patients have legitimate needs.

That view is not shared by Mike Vories, a physician who runs a pain management clinic in Hazzard, Ky.

"How in the world does an Internet Web site have any control over whether that controlled substance is going to a patient with a legitimate complaint?" he wondered. "Really, come on. Let's call this for what it is. A few maybe are legitimate and have pain. For the majority, it is a source of income."

I wish that the same biased people who wrote this story would come and check out this board and hear our stories and how we have suffered and why we have to turn to online pharmacies. This whole thing scares and disgusts me.

Sarah