For the third straight year, the number of Web sites selling controlled prescription drugs like OxyContin, Xanax and Ritalin has increased, according to a new report released Monday.
Since 2004, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University and Beau Dietl & Associates has performed an analysis over a comparable one-week period.
In 2004, they identified 157 sites selling controlled prescription drugs.
In 2006, the figure was185.
You've Got Drugs! Prescription Drug Pushers on the Internet: 2006 Update reveals nine of 10 of those Web sites do not require prescriptions.
Of those that don't, 30 percent advertise no prescription was needed, 60 percent offered "online consultations" and 10 percent made no mention of a prescription.
Beau Dietl & Associates identified 344 Web sites advertising or selling controlled prescription drugs, including painkillers such as Vicodin and OxyContin, depressants such as Xanax, Librium and Valium; and stimulants such as Adderall and Ritalin.
"The trend of teen 'pharming parties' will continue to increase as long as these drugs are so easy to obtain," said Joseph A. Califano Jr., chairman and president of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse and former secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.
"All they have to do," said Bo Deitl, chairman of Beau Dietl & Associates, "is punch in their parents' credit card number."
Labels: No Prescription, Online Pharmacy, Prescription Drugs
# posted by Network @ 11:25 AM
