With the abuse of prescription medications reaching epidemic proportions it is unbelievable that there are online pharmacies doling these medications without requiring so much as a prescription. Some online pharmacies that want to consider themselves legitimate require a fax of the prescription, never verifying its veracity.

Online Pharmacies

Some illegitimate online pharmacies sell drugs with no prescription or medical information at all while others ask for completion of a questionnaire before a prescription is issued by a physician who has never seen the patient.

Studies, according to psychcentral.com, from have found that 85 percent of websites offering controlled prescription drugs do not require a prescription, and many that do allow the prescription to be faxed, increasing the risk of forgery or fraud.

Even more frightening is the Internet serves as an open channel for distribution of controlled prescription drugs with no mechanisms to even block sales to children. This is particularly dangerous given that addiction is a disease that, in most cases, originates with substance use in adolescence.

It has been suggested that as many as 10 percent of prescription drug abusers obtain their drugs online, which most likely is a drastic underestimation given it would not include individuals most likely to abuse prescription drugs purchased over the Internet.

They also note that surveys in drug treatment centers would totally miss local drug dealers, who are increasingly likely to access their supplies online.

Earlier this year Jena and Dana Goldman, Ph.D., director of the Schaeffer Center at USC and a co-author of the commentary, published a study finding that states with the greatest expansion in high-speed Internet access from 2000 to 2007 also had the largest increase in admissions for treatment of prescription drug abuse.

They estimated that for every 10 percent increase in high-speed Internet use during those years, admissions for prescription drug abuse increased 1 percent.

“Prescription use starts with the physician,” said Goldman, “and we need to more actively engage them to control illicit use. Access to universal, electronic prescription records would be of great assistance in this regard.”

Both federal and private agencies have taken measures to reduce the impact of illicit Internet pharmacies, including the 2008 passage of the Ryan Height Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act, which specifically prohibits delivery of controlled substances prescribed by a physician who had never examined the patient.

But it is not know whether that law and related efforts, such as FDA warning letters to Internet pharmacies and their service providers, are at all successful. The authors note that regulatory efforts also are “stymied by these pharmacies’ ability to appear, disappear, and reappear constantly,” and the reluctance of search engines to stop running ads for rogue online pharmacies.

The increasing online availability of prescription drugs may entice individuals believed to be at low risk for drug abuse to overuse controlled medications.

The authors note that, while physicians and other health care providers should play a major part in addressing the challenges posed by Internet pharmacies, their awareness of the problem and ability to recognize and treat substance abuse of any kind is usually limited.

“Physicians need to educate patients about the risks of purchasing any medications over the Internet and should consider brief but routine questioning about Internet-based medication use,” said Jena. “Given the ability of illegal online pharmacies to evade law enforcement efforts, physician awareness and involvement will be crucial to reducing this problem.”

Fewer and fewer Hollywood films glorify drug use. When I was a kid I thought Jeff Spicoli was the coolest guy on the planet. Sean Penn instantly became my favorite actor!

Now with movies like Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” and television shows like AMC’s “Breaking Bad,” drug use and abuse is not shown in a positive light.

Now comes a powerful short film “Our Scene” to help warn youngsters of the consequences of taking drugs.

The English-language film was presented at the University of Macau, followed by a lecture on drugs with the presence of specialists and families from neighboring Hong Kong.

The short film was shot in Macau with a group of young volunteers – none of them a drug abuser – and it will be distributed for free to local schools and associations.

The film is a bit tragic because it ends with the end of a young character but the message is powerful - to get across is that a whole life can be ruined by drugs.

The film also helped launch a fund raising campaign for its ‘Be Cool’ project. The ‘Be Cool’ centre is open daily with after-school activities, for Macau’s youth aged above 12 years. It focuses on drug prevention, through music, arts, cooking, sports, games, among others activities.

Since opening in March, over 200 youngsters have already joined the ‘Be Cool’ activities. It’s a way to broaden the horizons of the youth so that they might have healthy alternatives to the lack of leisure spaces.

According to official data, the number of people arrested for drug abuse fell by 27.1 percent year-on-year in the January-September period. In addition the number of registered youth drug users also dropped by 42 in the first half of this year.

Drug addiction is a global problem. It is nice to see the awareness out there to try and educate all citizens about the dangers of substance abuse!

With the prevalence of drugs in society today it is no surprise that courts around the country are clogged by people arrested for drugs. One of the answers is drug courts.

It’s been a long time coming, but this is a modern approach to the drug scourge that we need to take. Drug abuse isn’t something that will be wiped out in our lifetime, our children’s lifetime or probably ever, but it’s also something that can’t be ignored.

High Cost of Jailing Users

So lock up the users, right? Fine, but better get out your checkbook. It costs about $25,000 a year to house an inmate. Then you’ve got a 50/50 shot at paying that “tuition” again. And the incarceration style nets a 45 percent recidivism rate, compared with drug courts, for which studies report a recidivism rate of between 5 percent and 28 percent.

There are 2,500 drug courts across the country.

Legalization is a tempting answer for some, but it’s a shortsighted solution poisoned by the naive notion that drug abuse only affects the addict. If that were the case, a colder approach might be warranted. Addiction is a real disease, but it’s a disease brought on by poor choices and one that can be managed only by better choices.

Drug abuse destroys families. It harms communities to the point of destroying urban neighborhoods. Property crimes and violent crimes are higher among drug abusers. That wouldn’t change if drug use itself were legal.

The Stats

It’s impossible to say with certainty what the exact impact of drug use has on the criminal justice system, but here are some U.S. Department of Justice statistics based on a survey of prison inmates:

• 29 percent of state inmates reported being under the influence of drugs when committing a violent crime.
• 22 percent of state inmates reported having used drugs when committing weapons offenses.
• 36 percent of state inmates reported being under the influence while committing property crimes.
• 19 percent of state prisoners also reported that they committed their most current offense to get money for drugs.

Drug court isn’t designed for Johnny who got caught with a one-hitter while driving mom’s car. It’s aimed at felony offenders, particularly those who have shown a history of repeat criminal offenses as a result of drug abuse. These are the offenders who are straining the criminal justice system.

Offenders must admit their offense and voluntarily subject themselves to the program, which includes treatment, intensive probation, as many as three random drug screenings in a week, and more direct judicial oversight.

In exchange for their success in the program, offenders will have their charges dropped.

Hopefully, for the addict’s sake and the community’s sake, the other benefit will be an end to the cycle one participant at a time. Keep your eyes out and ears open for other stories as to the success of drug courts. Reducing recidivism is a key to fighting this war!