Beware the online pharmacy in sheep’s clothing

Buying medicines online is very tempting. Shopping from the safety of your couch in your living room seems like a great way to save time and money, particularly when these drugs are just soooooooo much cheaper than what your local drug store can offer.
But the old saying “If it seems too good to be true, it probably isn’t true”, rings true here. Sites that offer heavily discounted brand-name drugs or continually spam you with unsolicited emails are almost 100% likely to be fake.
They use clever marketing tools and genuine product pictures to lure you in, but chances are, what you receive is likely to be contaminated, expired, or not actually the drug you think it is. Buying opioids on-line is particularly risky. Fentanyl is often used as a substitute for other opioids, with potentially fatal consequences. Do you really want to join the other 199 people that die a day from a drug overdose? Not to mention get your credit card hacked, your identity stolen, or a destructive computer virus just from visiting these sites.
Legitimate online pharmacies need to be licensed through a state board (or equivalent state agency) and you can check that the pharmacy is up to scratch on Be Safe RX. Any pharmacy that does not require a doctor’s prescription for prescription products is fake (and breaking the law) and there should always be a licensed pharmacist available to answer your questions.
One report suggested fraudulent on-line pharmacies are popping up at a rate of 20 per day. Which is why the FDA is cracking down on them, starting with over 460 websites that are currently on their radar. You can do your bit too, by reporting any dodgy looking sites or unlawful sales of prescription medicines to the FDA.
Don’t buy medicines on-line unless you are sure the site checks out as legit. Risking your health with a bad batch of drugs just isn’t worth it.