Canada Customs agents check hundreds of parcels a day

Canada Customs agents check hundreds of parcels a day. They're looking for guns, knives, hash and cocaine. They're also supposed to check for prescription drugs. It's legal to import them but only in small amounts.

But prescription drugs we ordered from websites slipped by Canada Customs, drugs prescribed by doctors who had never met their online patients and had more information about their credit card than about their health.

It starts at an online search engine. Type in the name of any prescription drug. The hottest trade is in so called lifestyle drugs, drugs that grow hair or reduce your waistline. We wanted to see which drugs we could buy without ever seeing a doctor.

And we were amazed by how easy it was. On offer: Propecia for hair loss, drugs for anxiety, drugs for weight loss and lots and lots of Viagra. We chose what we wanted. Then we filled out an online medical questionnaire that asked for a name, age, and yes or no answers to these questions: Do you have a heart condition? Do you have any drug allergies? As easy as that.

Then we waived our legal rights; gave them our credit card number and sent off the orders. Within weeks, six prescription drugs arrived on our desk.

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Most were from the United States, but one was from New Zealand. Propecia for hair loss arrived from three separate online pharmacies. There was an order of Viagra, a package of Celebrex for arthritic pain. And a three-month supply of the weight loss drug Phentermine.

"It's a dangerous game they play," says pharmacist Helena Decyk

All this without seeing a doctor. And all drugs which could cause serious side effects.

"Well, I'm surprised that you got all those things just on the Net," says Helena Decyk, a pharmacist in Oshawa, Ontario. "My reaction is that people who do this type of thing, are really, it's a dangerous game they play."

There are two kinds of online drug stores. The legitimate ones will only sell you drugs after you've seen a doctor and they've received that doctor's prescription. Then there are the rogue sites like the ones which sold us drugs. They're satisfied with the on-line questionnaire. They call that a consultation and charge you up to US$85 to fill it out.

The drugs we bought weren't cheap, but if you want a prescription and you don't want to discuss it with a doctor, these rogue Internet sites are the way to go.

We showed our stash to Decyk, starting with an envelope containing Propecia.

The Propecia arrived loosely packed in an envelope

"This is terrible. It should be in a bottle. This is so unprofessional," she says, showing us a broken pill. "If a pregnant woman touched this pill, her male fetus could suffer genital deformities forever."

Then we showed her the weight-loss drug Phentermine.

"It's actually addictive. With this type of drug there's a tremendous potential for abuse. Now that's a huge amount. Ninety capsules -- that would be enough for three months. Typically this type of medication is indicated to be used for two weeks. Using it longer than two weeks is not recommended by the manufacturer."

When we first learned about it, we were surprised and shocked at how easy it was for anybody to order any product off the Internet.

Carmen Catizone

Carmen Catizone heads the largest association of pharmacists in Canada and the United States. For the past two years he's made it his mission to slow down sales from online rogue sites.

"It's impossible to track down some of these truly devious and rogue sites," Catizone says. "They're very elusive, very well financed and do not have any regard for existing laws or regulations."

But Catizone has discovered rogue pharmacists have a high regard for the dollar.

"When we became involved in this Internet program, we saw that many pharmacists and physicians were working to use any loophole possible in order to turn a profit and sell prescription drugs to people they shouldn't be selling drugs to.

"It's amazing," Catizone continues. "It's frustrating and it's frightening."

NEXT: Online pharmacies: The role of the physician »

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