Recently, Legitscript.com and KnujOn.com released a report analyzing the Yahoo Search engine’s advertisements for online pharmacies. The results are quite disturbing and it’s a wonder law enforcement agencies have not yet cracked down.
Legitscript.com is the only Internet pharmacy verification organization in the United States identified by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy as adhering to its standards for certifying Internet pharmacies. KnujOn.com tracks Internet criminality and has succeeded in removing over 100,000 spam websites from the Internet.
The report, released by these companies on August 18, showed that around 80 percent of the search engine’s advertisements concerning online pharmacies reviewed by the researchers were not operating in compliance with United States federal laws. The report states the researchers were able to order and receive medication normally requiring a prescription without one “" a clear violation of Drug Enforcement Administration regulation of potentially habit-forming medications. One site even imported the medications ordered from India, which is also in violation of United States Law.
The report also touches on Pharmacychecker.com, the pharmacy verification service used by Yahoo, Google and Microsoft to determine the legitimacy of pharmacies in ads they display. The researchers were able to obtain drugs without a prescription from an online pharmacy listed on and approved by Pharmacychecker.com. These drugs were also imported from India.
Yahoo’s current policy mandates that an online pharmacy advertised through the search engine be “based in” the United States or Canada; however, three sites in the study which were approved based on having Canadian pharmaceutical licenses actually shipped their medications from places like India, Singapore And Barbados. A fourth site, also approved in Canada, stated it could only fill prescriptions in Canada and to do so in other countries would be illegal.
It is important to note that these issues are far from isolated, as a previous report focused on Microsoft’s search engine Bing.com and the findings were similar. Also, the American Pharmacists Association, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy and the National Association on Addiction and Substance Abuse have written Google, Microsoft and Yahoo informing them that they were profiting from online pharmacies acting unlawfully.
“We’re making this a public issue because it’s time for this to stop,” KnujOn President Garth Bruen said. “If the search engines continue to knowingly facilitate illegal prescription drug sales, then we’ll continue to issue these reports. Our reports stop when the problem is fixed.”
“Yahoo needs to require that its Internet pharmacy ads adhere to US laws and National Association of Boards of Pharmacy standards,” LegitScript President John Horton said. “These are the same safeguards that govern brick-and-mortar pharmacies used throughout the US everyday. Shouldn’t American Internet users be assured of the same safeguards online?”
If you are someone who gets his or her medications from an online pharmacy, you may be putting yourself and your family in danger. If this is the case, we suggest you look further into the companies from which you choose to procure your medications.
Just like with almost anything you buy, if you don’t do your homework you can get taken advantage of. Just because there are rogue online pharmacies taking advantage of the system, that doesn’t mean that all the pharmacies on the internet are bad, just that you should research and find a reputable one. You should always be very careful when ordering you medications online. Check and make sure that the pharmacy you are purchasing from is licensed by their governing authority, and that they always require proof of an original doctors prescription before sending out medications.
Also, lets not overlook the fact that LegitScrips is a direct competitor of pharmacychecker.