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Addictive drugs easy to find online

by on10 July 2008

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No prescription needed


More than three-quarters of Web sites that sell highly addictive medications that do not require customers to provide a prescription.

Apparently it is a doddle to get your paws on morphine and oxycodone, and stimulants such as amphetamine, according to  Columbia University researchers. Joseph Califano, who heads Columbia's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse said that of the 365 sites selling controlled substances online 85 percent did not require a doctor's prescription.

The number of online establishments flogging the drugs fell 37 percent from last year,  due to coppers'  efforts to crack down on online drug trafficking, the report said. More than 80 percent of all online prescriptions are for controlled substances, compared with just 11 percent of prescriptions filled at traditional pharmacies, according to the DEA.

The Senate earlier this year passed a bill that would explicitly ban the acquisition of highly regulated drugs over the Internet without a prescription.
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