Online Pharmacies, Personal Drug Importation and Public Health: Illegal Doesn’t Mean Unsafe
Continuing our quest to get the truth out and for our elected leaders in Congress to take bold action to protect online access to safe and affordable medication, we’re publishing a section a week of our report called Online Pharmacies, Personal Drug Importation, and Public Health. Our report refutes a flawed GAO report about Internet pharmacies.
This week we look at the evidence that proves that illegal personal drug importation is not inherently unsafe. First of all, when Americans buy medication from a licensed pharmacy in Canada, India, Turkey, or the UK, the pharmacy itself is legal in those countries: after all its licensed. Unfortunately, it’s technically illegal under most circumstances for a consumer to import meds for their own use from those pharmacies. It’s very common for groups funded by big drug companies to confuse consumers and even lawmakers that this illegality means the practice is inherently not safe, but that’s not true…
Illegal Doesn’t Mean Unsafe
The GAO report misconstrues safety and legality in its analysis of Internet pharmacies. The report states: “By violating federal and state laws, rogue Internet pharmacies threaten the public health.” For about fifteen years, often in violation of federal and state laws, millions of Americans have safely imported medication ordered online, pursuant to a valid prescription for their own use. As evidenced throughout this report, it’s not the violation of federal or state laws that threaten the public health but the actions of rogue pharmacy operators who sell fake or otherwise dangerous medication, or real medication without requiring a prescription.
The facts about personal drug importation are as follows: 1) Through orders placed online, tens of millions of Americans have imported medication from licensed pharmacies that require a prescription over the past 15 years with no reported deaths or serious adverse effects; 2) the practice is technically illegal under most circumstances; 3) there is no evidence that shows personal drug importation of non-controlled medication where a prescription is required is inherently unsafe; 4) according to the FDA, no one has ever been prosecuted for importing small quantities of prescription drugs for personal use.1
If an American receives a drug ordered online that was dispensed and mailed properly from a licensed pharmacy, it makes no difference from a safety perspective whether the product came from a U.S. or foreign licensed pharmacy, as long as the drug has the right amount of the active ingredient, treats the condition as intended, and is administered in the manner intended by the physician who prescribed the drug. Like those sold in U.S. pharmacies, medications ordered from credentialed international online pharmacies are produced in factories employing Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and are distributed, stored, dispensed, and mailed properly. The drugs are the same as or foreign versions of those sold in U.S. pharmacies.
1“Should You Use an Overseas Pharmacy,” MoneyTalksNews.com, 2/1/2013. An email written by Christopher Kelly, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, FDA, states: “FDA is not aware of any actions taken against an individual resulting from their purchase of small quantities of unapproved drugs for personal use.” http://www.moneytalksnews.com/2013/02/01/is-it-safe-to-use-an-overseas-pharmacy/, [Last accessed 12/17/2013].
