For the body conscious, a weight loss diet pill can easily be bought online. The increasing number of online pharmacies selling weight loss diet pill online has caught the attention of the US local government, prompting them to take action and to impose a ban on these online stores. However, at present, the US government still has no tight hold on these online pharmacies, and people can still buy a weight loss diet pill online from them.
Online pharmacies: how they began
The rise of the online pharmacies began in 2000. While some online pharmacies are selling drugs that require prescription, many now allow prescription drugs to be sold without prescription. There have also been reports of pharmacies dispensing substandard products.
Online pharmacies work like community pharmacies, but the main difference is the method by which the medications are requested and received. Many people consider online pharmacies as more convenient than traveling to a community drugstore.
Weight loss pharmacies
Weight loss diet pill sold online is the most common type of drug sold over the internet. A weight loss diet pill sold online allows just about any type of consumer to buy weight loss products, some substandard and some even fraudulent.
A typical weight loss pharmacy sells weight loss diet pill online including Acomplia, Regenon, Tenuate, and Xenical. According to BBC reports, six of the top ten web drugs are weight loss products including Xenical, Phentermine, Meridia, Bontril, Ionamin, and Adipex.
Illegal drugs
Apart from selling weight loss diet pill online, several online pharmacies are also believed to be selling illegal drugs. BBC reports that among the top ten web drugs include Viagra and Prozac, the latter being an anti-depressant drug that needs prescription to be sold.
The online monitoring company Envisional claims that online pharmacies are potentially dangerous, exposing consumers to huge risks and creating problems for pharmaceutical companies whose products are being sold on unregulated sites.
Most of the drugs sold online, including weight loss diet pill online, are not paying attention to local regulations. There are also an alarming number of online pharmacies delivering drugs directly to consumers without prescription, and the effects could be devastating.
A huge market
According to the US government, online pharmacies are a hit because consumers are patronizing them. Everyday, a new online pharmacy is born, and customers quickly flock to that company without any second thought. The problem is then unquantifiable and difficult to solve.
According to reports, it is estimated that the market for online prescription drugs will be US$4.4 billion this year. Most of the consumers for online pharmacies live overseas, thus making it hard for the local government to fight against the growing industry.
Give you friendly community pharmacy a visit
While online pharmacies are definitely more convenient, nothing beats your regular community pharmacy. According to Envisional’s Chief executive Brian Earle, the pharmacy and prescription system exists for a reason. That is, to protect consumers from harmful side-effects of drugs they are not equipped to understand.
“If a doctor tells a patient that he cannot be prescribed Viagra because of a weak heart or other medical condition, that patient can easily obtain the drug over the internet,” he says.
Trusted doctor
Also, consumers should be wary of online pharmacies claiming to have a resident or in-house doctor to help you with the meds. These so-called doctors are said to be knowledgeable and can give you sound advice. However, reports have shown that some of these doctors are unlicensed, putting into question the reliability of these online pharmacies.
Stricter laws
At present, the US government is coming up with legislation to tighten the reigns on these online pharmacies. There was a proposal to impose fines on websites that sell drugs without prescription. However, this is not enough because websites that sell drugs overseas will definitely skirt this law.
At present, there is a lot of debate ongoing about whether the pharmacies or the buyers are breaking any state or federal laws and, if so, what those laws are. The local office of the Drug Enforcement Agency and the U.S. Attorney's office are not involved in the arrests that have been made. The arrests are strictly local. That is not to say the federal agencies may not at some point take a much closer look at these online pharmacies. The first step to probably decreasing these online pharmacies is to stop patronizing them.
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