USA - Drug Dealers In Your Home

[Lunar Loops]

Further legislation targeting 'illegal' online pharmacies appears to be close at hand. This article from The San Francisco Chronicle:

DRUG DEALERS IN YOUR HOME

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Ryan Haight was a 17-year-old honors student, and varsity tennis player, when he bought the prescription painkillers that would take his life. He placed the order from a family-room computer in his San Diego home, using a debit card his parents had given him to trade baseball cards on eBay.

It is easy to obtain controlled substances on the Internet. Offers pour into e-mail inboxes every day. A search of "Vicodin without prescription" produces myriad options. The "consultation with a physician" is often a sham, as Ryan's case illustrates.

In his questionnaire for the online pharmacy, Ryan described himself as a 25-year-old male with chronic back pain. On Feb. 12, 2001, he died from a fatal overdose of Vicodin.

Abuse of prescription drugs, particularly among young people, is a serious and growing problem in this nation. An estimated 10 percent of high school seniors have used an addictive prescription narcotic in the past year. Many obtain them from the medicine cabinets of their parents. Others buy them from one of the hundreds of online sellers of controlled substances.

"There is just a huge industry out there of the sale of these drugs without a prescription ... and that becomes a huge market for young people," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said in a recent phone interview.

Feinstein and Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., have co-sponsored legislation that would prohibit the sale of a controlled substance on the Internet without a prescription. It also would require online pharmacies to certify their compliance with the law on their home pages. Violators would be treated as what they are: Drug dealers, subject to life imprisonment and forfeiture of their ill-gotten gains.

Feinstein emphasized that the "Ryan Haight Online Consumer Protection Act" (S980) is targeted at rogue pharmacies, and would not stop the sale of low-cost drugs to patients who have a valid prescription from their U.S. doctors.

The measure has cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee, and appears to be on a fast-track to passage. President Bush gave it a push in his weekly radio address on March 1.

The Feinstein-Sessions bill is a start. But some rogue pharmacies will remain beyond the reach of U.S. law. Drugs can be manufactured in countries that don't require prescriptions. "A site selling Vicodin without a prescription can be created on a computer in Uzbekistan, registered to a business address in Pakistan and deposit payments to a Cayman Island bank," two former federal drug-busters observed in a recent essay in the Washington Post. Mathea Falco was an assistant secretary of state for international narcotics matters from 1977 to 1981; Philip Heymann was deputy attorney general from 1993 to 1994.

Falco and Heymann argued that pressure must be exerted on the U.S. credit card companies, search engines and Internet providers that are "key intermediaries" in these illicit drug transactions, however unwittingly. Credit card companies and their sponsoring financial institutions should prohibit the use of their services to pharmacies that defy U.S. drug laws; the search engines and Internet providers can employ technological tools to flag illicit pharmacies and block drug-related spam.

Ryan's mother, Francine Haight, is a registered nurse. His father is a physician. They were stunned to learn that controlled substances that were guarded so tightly at their workplaces were flowing into the hands of teenagers.

"At a time when we were worried about our children being exposed to pornography and predators, marijuana and alcohol," she testified on Capitol Hill last year, "we did not know that drug dealers were in our own family room."

Tougher laws against rogue pharmacies and greater cooperation from credit-card companies, while needed, will not be enough. Parents need to do their part. The contents of that forgotten vial in the medicine cabinet can be as destructive as anything being sold on the street corner.

[Dole654]

a fatal overdose of vicodin huh? interesting....

[x cynic x]

Did he overdose on hydrocodone or acetaminophen?

[kaczynski]

It probably was acetaminophen..once you start taking 10+ pills at a time you're getting in the danger zone

[Ididnotinhale]

Swim had a friend who was taking 20 vicodin a day. He will probably either die before to long or have to have a liver transplant from the tylenol.

I'm sorry that I can't find a source, but swim has heard from two different doctors and a pharmacology teacher that tylenol kills more people than alcohol

[VoodooFeather]

Originally Posted by yowhatupU

Swim had a friend who was taking 20 vicodin a day. He will probably either die before to long or have to have a liver transplant from the tylenol.

I'm sorry that I can't find a source, but swim has heard from two different doctors and a pharmacology teacher that tylenol kills more people than alcohol

I dunno about the more than alcohol business, cause that would mean tylenol should be script only then... and thats just silly. But who knows, just sounds fishy to me.

SWIM has taken over 30 vicodin pretty consistently and so far so good. Could chalk it up to different people, different body mechanics, different tolerance, etc. Not recommended though.

Mixing the alcohol with the pills is a sure way to add another statistic to both drugs.

[ajm48786]

Originally Posted by VoodooFeather

I dunno about the more than alcohol business, cause that would mean tylenol should be script only then... and thats just silly. But who knows, just sounds fishy to me.

SWIM has taken over 30 vicodin pretty consistently and so far so good. Could chalk it up to different people, different body mechanics, different tolerance, etc. Not recommended though.

Mixing the alcohol with the pills is a sure way to add another statistic to both drugs.

Perhaps Swiyou should consider using a cold water separation technique to get rid of the acetaminophen. Swim has read that there are easy techniques to get the tylenol out of the combos with oxycodone,hydrocodone,etc.

Swim also believes the fellow that died from the vicodin probably died as a result of acetaminophen overdose (liver failure), or probably from a combination with some other drug. Even most heroin overdoses are the result of combination with other CNS depressants; so, Swim would be very surprised if hydrocodone was the main culprit in this unfortunate death.

Swim used to do around 10 10 mg hydocodone/acetaminophens a day. Somehow, that, and half a year of very heavy drinking (not at the same time) including an alcohol poisoning episode (he didn't have to go to the hospital or anything) didn't damage his liver. He was lucky; and had he continued to take a bunch of hydrocodone/acetaminophen combos, he is convinced he would be screwed. Swim just wanted to toss the idea of separating the acetaminophen for anyone you may know taking a harm reduction approach.

The online trade of addictive pharmaceuticals is dangerous because most of the drugs come from out of this country; and it is much like going on the street in the sense one is likely to get a different drug than indicated. I've read people frequently get drugs that look just like the correct prescription drug, same markings/colors; but, they turn out to be some other drug, or at best, sugar (as other drugs taken in excess will cause harm). It isn't in any way guaranteed as a bottle of alcohol is, that is the primary problem, not the availability of the addictive drugs. One may go on the street and find any of those anyway; and they're very likely to deal with shadier people than with some corrupt doctors on the internet. In an optimal world, no one would abuse drugs, hell, addictive drugs wouldn't exist; but, they do exist, and people will always do them.

Personally, I think the big problem with drugs in general is the laws we have in regards to them. We do stupid shit like coat morning glory seeds with poisoning to "deter" people, we have stupid fucking laws that only make the drugs more seductive; and we put toxic and largely ineffective drugs in our addictive prescription drugs. Addictive drugs will ALWAYS cause problems by themselves; but, the problems are around two times worse because of the approach our society has taken to help people from themselves. People will continue to overdose, people will continue to lose their jobs, destroy relationships,etc due to drugs.

Instead of amplify the harm, we need to reduce it as much as possible. It is the only responsible thing we as a people may do for those that suffer the most visible addiction of all, certainly not the only addiction (of course everyone has some addiction).

[cra$h]

regarding the whole can't tell what your substance is, if it was federally watched, you would be guaranteed something clean, just like when you buy alcohol, it's alcohol, when you buy cigarettes, it's (mostly) tobacco.

[ajm48786]

Originally Posted by cra$h

regarding the whole can't tell what your substance is, if it was federally watched, you would be guaranteed something clean, just like when you buy alcohol, it's alcohol, when you buy cigarettes, it's (mostly) tobacco.

Precisely the point I was trying to make. I am no fan of big government myself, I personally believe a hands off approach in most matters is the best, giving people the most freedom; however, when it comes to addictive drugs, it is probably in the publics best interest to have some reliable assurance they know what they're getting and how much of whatever they're getting, without a shadow of a doubt. All drugs need to be legalized and regulated; or, at very least decriminalized, it is the only way to significantly reduce the harm they create. It is the only way that will work.

Roughly 50% of Americans that smoked tobacco have quit/stopped over the past decades. Did we build more jails? Did we make it illegal? No, we educated and were able to help roughly half of all adult smokers quit/stop the most addictive drug we know of, nicotine (or at least got them off the harmful delivery method known as smoking, considering nicotine gum/lozenges/patches are not going to cause cancer,etc). It is quite the example of how we can successfully fight the dangers/problems addictive drugs create.

Regardless, we're quite a ways away from where we need to be. I live in a society where drinking ones self into a rage/cancer/diabetes/liver failure/brain damage every day/night is acceptable, so long as they don't leave their homes or cause trouble; while many safer addictive drugs are illegal. It leads to stupid crap like this, addicts/users going on the internet to shady pharmacies and putting themselves in danger. I understand why users/addicts would do this, they'd rather not deal with some drug dealer that will rip them off or give them the runaround or at worse rob/kill them. It makes sense to avoid that crap, unfortunately they wind up giving themselves the shaft because a lot of these places are very shady. With this new law proposal, we'll be able to do what we have to to fight the drug problem: push addicts/users back on the street, make them feel like criminals for having a disorder, make them go back to the violent drug dealers. Let's make the addictive drugs or the general usage of currently "illicit" drugs as harmful as possible, maybe that will successfully deter addicts, HA! I'm with you on this one crash. Cheers!