Tue Mar 1, 7:45 PM ET VIENNA (AFP) - [SIZE=-1] The illicit sale on the Internet of pharmaceutical drugs with a narcotic effect surged in 2004, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) warned in a report.[/size] <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="1%"> <tbody><tr valign="top"> <td width="99%"> <center> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="150"> <tbody><tr valign="top"> <td> <center> AFP/File Photo </center> </td></tr></tbody></table> </center> </td><td width="5"> </td></tr></tbody></table> [size=-1] "Narcotic and psychotropic substances are increasingly being advertised and illicitly sold without required prescriptions by Internet pharmacies ... subjecting customers to serious health risks," said the panel, an independent body monitoring implementation of UN drugs conventions. [/size] [size=-1] The agency said in its 2004 report pharmaceutical drugs, often substances with a high abuse potential like stimulants and tranquilisers, were being sold online by outfits operating throughout the world. [/size] [size=-1] It said investigations carried out in Asia and Europe had shown that "around 90 percent of such sales by Internet pharmacies are conducted without the prescriptions required for internationally controlled narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances." [/size] [size=-1] Mind-altering substances currently make up the vast majority of products sold online, posing a serious health hazard for clients, given the lack of control, it added. [/size] [size=-1] Among these products are stimulants like amphetamines, and benzodiazepine tranquilizers, such as alprazolam and diazepam, as well as potentially lethal substances like fenatanyl and secobarbital. [/size] [size=-1] A further worry, the INCB noted, was the lack of age restrictions in Internet sales. [/size] [size=-1] "The illicit trade over the Internet has been identified as one of the major sources for prescription medications abused by children and adolescents in certain countries such as the United States," it said. [/size] [size=-1] In general it cost more to buy pharmaceutical drugs over the Internet than at a chemist's and medical aid systems did not reimburse the cost, indicating that users turned to the Internet because they failed to get legal prescriptions for the drugs, the agency added. [/size] [size=-1] It proposed that in order to combat the problem, governments should tighten their control over their pharmaceutical industries to cut the supply of drugs to Internet traders. [/size] [size=-1] "Illicit Internet pharmacies dealing with brand products must obtain their supplies from established and recognised suppliers supervised by the competent authorities of the country from which they operate," therefore proper law enforcement should block the flow, it said. [/size] [size=-1] The INCB also called for better cooperation between governments and international organisations, like Interpol, the World Customs Organisation, the World Health Organisation and Universal Postal Union. [/size] [size=-1] It said last year such cooperation allowed the authorities of the Netherlands Antilles to block the illicit channelling of mind-altering pharmaceutical drugs. [/size] [size=-1] It singled out Pakistan for criticism, however, saying the country failed to respond to calls to prosecute companies that were sending illicit shipments of psychotropic drugs to Switzerland and the Netherlands. [/size] [size=-1] INCB president Hamid Ghodse conceded that it was difficult to police the situation because Internet companies "can easily be relocated" if the laws of the country from which they operate are tightened, [/size] [size=-1] But the official urged governments to tackle the problem with the urgency it required. [/SIZE]
A good read SJ, here's some more on the same topic: March 2, 2005 VIENNA, Austria (Reuters) -- Illegal drug sales on the Internet are booming as unlicensed online pharmacies selling drugs like morphine evade a patchy global effort to stop them, the United Nations narcotics watchdog says. In its 2004 annual report, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) said Internet pharmacies sell several billion doses of medicine illicitly each year and deliver them by post, making them an alternative drug-trafficking route. "They are really taking the place of traditional drug traffickers," INCB President Hamid Ghodse said at a news conference ahead of the report's release. "It is very much increasing rapidly," Ghodse said, when asked how quickly the problem was growing. The vast majority of drugs sales by online pharmacies involved internationally controlled narcotics and so-called psychotropic substances, which act on the mind, the INCB said. Of those, around 90 percent were sold without the required prescription. "Billions of doses of controlled substances -- some of them highly potent drugs such as oxycodone, which is equivalent to morphine, and fentanyl, which is many times stronger than morphine -- are sold by unlicensed Internet pharmacies," he added. These pharmacies blurred the distinction between licit and illicit drugs by offering prescription medication to all customers alongside over-the-counter products like food supplements, the INCB said. They also posed a risk to children, the INCB said. "The illicit trade over the Internet has been identified as one of the major sources for prescription medications abused by children and adolescents in certain countries such as the United States," the INCB said in its report. Legal suppliers were fueling the illicit trade by providing unlicensed Internet pharmacies with many of the drugs they sell, and national authorities should do more to stop them, it added. "Since most of these pharmacies deal with brand products obtained from established and recognized suppliers, authorities responsible for the control of these suppliers can effectively prevent shipments to unlicensed Internet pharmacies," it said. Iraq effect? While some countries were willing to cooperate in investigating illicit shipments from their territory, others needed to do better, it said. "A lack of cooperation by some national authorities has been identified as a major impediment to concerted efforts," the report said, adding that Pakistan had not investigated some illegal shipments from its shores. In North America, the biggest market in the world for illicit drugs, the abuse or misuse of prescription drugs appeared to be on the rise, the INCB said. Another source of concern was Iraq, where a lack of political stability could prove fertile for drug trafficking. "The drug situation in Iraq may deteriorate further because of the disintegration of the drug control structure in the country, given its geographical location and the current political and economic instability," the INCB said. Illicit drug production in Afghanistan had reached a record high and threatened the country's stability, it said. After three successive years of bumper opium poppy harvests there, heroin trafficking in Europe had regained some momentum. While heroin use was stable or declining in most of western Europe, it continued to increase in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Russia had become the biggest heroin market in Europe with over one million heroin users, the INCB said. The eastern enlargement of the European Union could also weaken measures to fight drug trafficking, it added. "The board is concerned that the enlargement of the European Union may lead to a weakening of existing import or export controls throughout Europe," the INCB said. Link to article: http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/03/02/un.drugs.reut/