Bush Urges Congress to Ban the Sale of Dangerous Prescription Drugs over the Internet

In his weekly radio address, President George Bush urged congress to pass legislation regulating the illicit sale of prescription drugs over the internet.

People may be underestimating the dangers and addictive potential of these drugs, perceiving them as somehow safer than street level narcotics. Bush warned, "Unfortunately, many young Americans do not understand how dangerous abusing medication can be, and in recent years, the number of Americans who have died from prescription drug overdoses has increased."

In his radio address, Bush spoke of Ryan Haight as an example of the dangers of internet medications. Haight, a California teen, died after overdosing on prescription medications he had ordered from the internet. The doctor who filled his prescription never saw Haight, and had previously served prison time for illegal prescribing practices.

Bush asked congress to act to, "prevent tragedies like this from happening in the future." He hopes to see legislation that would ban the internet sale of dangerous prescription medications.

SAMSHA, the federal Govt.'s primary agency for substance abuse and addiction, has released studies that estimate that only a very minute percentage of prescription drug abusers source their medications over the internet - estimating 0.1%. Most drug users, they report, obtain these drugs from relatives or friends, at the street level, or through practices such as doctor shopping (visiting numerous doctors to obtain multiple prescriptions).

Estimates from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health have 7 million Americans abusing prescription medications for non medical reasons.