Has your child ever used the Internet to obtain any of the following: cigarettes, alcohol, prescription drugs, illicit drugs, or steroids? i-SAFE asked the students themselves. Their answers may surprise you. In anonymous online surveys conducted by i-SAFE 33% of high school students in Hawaii and 18% of Hawaii's 5-8 graders answered that they have used the Internet this way. Could it be your child?
The Internet has given shoppers a virtually hassle-free way to compare prices and brand names, and to purchase almost anything online without ever leaving their home, including legal or even illegal drugs. It appears that the drug dealer has moved and is now dealing openly in Cyberspace, making himself available at the click of a mouse.
Most of us have even received e-mails or have seen pop-up ads for “prescription medications for less” or “medications delivered right to your door.” Steroids, narcotics, “club drugs,” chemicals needed to manufacture drugs, and even legal substances (i.e., alcohol, cigarettes) often not available to underage users are readily available online without an ID or prescription. This unprecedented access to online substances has given parents another thing to worry about in the war against drugs.
The Partnership for a Drug-Free America reports that approximately one in five teenagers has abused a prescription painkiller to get high, and one in ten has abused over-the-counter (OTC) products, like cough medicine. More and more OTC and prescription drugs are showing up at parties and raves, dumped in a bowl – like candy – for the taking. The multi-colored bowlful of drugs is commonly referred to as “skittles.”
The Internet gives teens easy access to the drugs they want. Teens avidly use chat rooms, message boards, and e-mail, and these modes of communication are also being used to arrange drug sales, advertise online pharmacies and to share information on drug use. There are also many sites online that offer recipes, ingredients and locations to purchase ingredients to make illegal drugs.
Legitimate online pharmacies exist, including many drugstore chains such as CVS and Walgreens, which require a valid ID and a faxed or mailed prescription from a licensed doctor who has seen the patient in-person. However, “rogue” pharmacies only require a valid credit card to order, and in most cases, the patient has never seen a doctor or received a written prescription. Many of these unregulated “pills for profit” pharmacies operate outside the U.S. and ship their goods in deceptively marked packaging to avoid detection by Customs officials.
The government has been actively seeking to solve the problem of unregulated sales of prescription drugs online since the death of a California teenager in 2001. Ryan Haight died when he overdosed on Vicodin pills which he purchased on the Internet without a valid prescription. As a result, the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2008 was signed into law last October. It regulates online pharmacies by outlawing the delivery, distribution, or dispensing of a controlled substance that is a prescription drug over the Internet without a valid prescription.
There are measures you can take as a parent. Watch the history of sites that your child visits. Limit the purchases your child makes with your credit card, or with online accounts. Watch your credit card statements for evidence of illicit purchases and be aware of packages being delivered to your home.
A safe Web site should:
- be located in the United States and licensed by the state board of pharmacy where the Web site is operating (check http://www.nabp.net/ for a list of state boards of pharmacy)
- have a licensed pharmacist to answer your questions
- require a prescription from your doctor or other health care professional who is licensed in the United States to write prescriptions for medicine
- have a way for you to talk to a person if you have problems
If you suspect a site is illegal, you can report it by calling the DEA hotline:
877-RxAbuse. The FDA Web site http://www.fda.gov/ and info line 888-INFO-FDA are good resources.
Parents, take an interest in what your children are doing online, and learn as much as you can about e-Safety. i-SAFE provides easy and convenient i-PARENT online training at http://ilearn.isafe.org/. You can also learn more at http://www.isafe.org/, or our new Web site just for Hawaii at http://www.isafehawaii.org/.
