Buying Meds Online: Buyer Beware!

"No Prescription Required" and "Online Consultation" are danger signs.

The Negative:

Online pharmacies are springing up all over the Internet. Our email is bombarded with spam from these sites offering to sell brand name drugs without prescriptions. There are many situations in which ordering from these sites is tempting:

• You don't have a doctor, can't afford a doctor, or there's a long wait for an appointment.
• You're in pain, and your doctor doesn't believe in prescribing narcotics.
• You find yourself running out of medication before it can be refilled.

Despite any of those situations or others, it's important to know that we should never order from an online pharmacy that doesn't require a written prescription from our own doctors. Sites that sell prescription medications without that prescription from our doctors are illegal in the United States. When I traced the registration of a site from an email I received, I found that it's in Taiwan, which is not unusual. The site looks great, but if you look for an address or phone number for the company, you won't find one. The only way to contact them is via a form on the site. Their prices were also exorbitant, as shown in the chart below. Some of the dangers of ordering from such sites, as cited by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are:

• Fake, unapproved, outdated, or sub-standard products
• Little or no quality control (packaging, purity of ingredients, storage)
• Possibility of an incorrect diagnosis (i.e., those sites that inappropriately diagnose and prescribe online)
• Obtaining an inappropriate medicine (e.g., inappropriate for condition, interaction with other drugs)

The Positive:

There are good, reputable pharmacies and pharmacy services online, too. Many insurance companies offer their subscribers prescription medications at a great savings on their part of the payment when they order through online pharmacy services. Many of the major pharmacy chains such as Rite Aid, CVS, and Walgreen's have web sites that offer services such as:

• ordering refills online for pickup or delivery
• automatic refill systems
• choosing a prescription to refill from a list of your current prescriptions
• online prescription and prescription expense records
• online drug interaction checking
• price checking
• pharmacist consultations
• insurance billing
• prescriptions can be called in by your doctor or the written prescriptions can be mailed to them
• delivery of nonprescription items with your prescriptions

When Using an Online Pharmacy:

Follow these guidelines from the FDA:

• Meet with your doctor to obtain any new prescription
• Buy only from sites that require prescriptions from a physician or other authorized health care provider and that also verify each prescription before dispensing the medication. A written verification policy is usually posted on the site.
• Know from whom you are buying. buy only from legitimate U.S.-based sites.
• Look for easy-to-find and understand privacy and security policies.
• Use common sense when purchasing prescription medications online. Apply the same standards you'd use for any place of business when looking for a reputable pharmacy site.

For More Information:

• Buying Prescription Medicines Online: A Consumer Safety Guide
• Buying Medicines and Medical Products Online
• Buying Drugs Online: It's Convenient and Private, but Beware of "Rogue Sites"

Summary:

Whatever your reasons may be, ordering prescription medications from illegal web sites that don't require a prescription is potentially dangerous and just not worth it. One of our forum members recently discovered this the hard way. He paid an exorbitant price for what was supposed to be his regular pain medication. When it arrived -- from Italy -- it was a worthless, fake product. If you don't think your doctor is meeting your needs, get a new doctor. If you think you'll save the money an doctor's visit would cost, think again. You'd be overcharged so much on one of these sites that it would more than pay the doctor's bill. Please, make your health your top priority, and always play it safe.