USA TODAY: UPS will halt deliveries for illegal online pharmacies and pay $40 million to end a federal criminal probe into its shipping practices, the Justice Department said Friday.
Atlanta-based UPS agreed to create a compliance program to identify the rogue pharmacies and close their shipping accounts, cutting off at least one route for the pharmacies to get their products to consumers, FDA Criminal Investigations Director John Roth said…
Internet pharmacies selling controlled substances, including powerful narcotic pain killers such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, without valid prescriptions used UPS services to ship the illegal drugs, the Justice Department said in a press release. Some pharmacies shipped the prescription drugs to customers who had simply filled out a questionnaire with their medical complaint for an online “evaluation,” the Justice Department said… (more)
EDITOR: Halting illegal shipments may well be a good thing in general, but there are a lot of sufferers who require pain medicine who are not able to obtain it due to unwillingness of physicians to prescribe high doses, especially if it attracts other needy pain patients. They fear loss of license and prosecution.
See CATO Institute: “Treating Doctors as Drug Dealers The DEA’s War on Prescription Painkillers”
Also, benign prescription medication such as generic Viegra are not available at local pharmacies and can be purchased for a fifth of the cost in generic form via the Internet and mail. Hopefully, this will not be deterred.
