Criminal Defense Attorney Analysis of Internet Pharmacy, Prescription, and Drug Law
From the monthly archives:
Doctor Juan Antonio Ibanez of Tampa, Florida pled guilty to selling over 50 million hydrocodone pills from 2003-2007 via a number of internet pharmacy websites, including foxfamilymeds.com, medsforpain.com, prescriptiondrugplanet.com, sunshinefamilymeds.com and online-scripts.com.
The Tampa Tribune recounts a portion of the plea hearing:
“During this process, did you act knowingly and intentionally with due disregard for the law?” U.S. Magistrate Mark [...]
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One of the best websites for tracking prescription drug and internet pharmacy law related regulation, including the Ryan Haight Act, is maplight.org. You can track a bill’s progress just like govtrack.us and opencongress.org, but, more interestingly, you can also track political campaign contributions related to such bills all in one spot.
Both Barak Obama and John McCain are no strangers to campaign [...]
I previously wrote about the legal difficulties of convicting an internet pharmacy or pharmacist pre and post Ryan Haight Act. Specifically, I noted the hurdles to persuading a jury that a pharmacist knew (as required by the Controlled Substances Act) that he or she was filling illegal prescriptions beyond a reasonable doubt.
One of the ways prosecutors seek to prove [...]
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One of the justifications for the Ryan Haight Act was that doctors performing face to face examinations can determine the veracity of a patient’s claim of chronic pain before prescribing medication much better than an internet pharmacy doctor performing an online consultation. This is likely true with respect to internet pharmacies that do not require medical records [...]
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The DEA wasted no time issuing its press release on President Bush’s signing of the Ryan Haight Act:
Cyber-criminals illegally peddling controlled substances over the Internet have invaded households and threatened America’s youth for far too long by supplying pharmaceuticals with a few clicks of a mouse and a credit card number,” Acting Administrator Leonhart said.
Rogue [...]
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According to the text of the Ryan Haight Act, most of its provisions, including the ones outlawing internet pharmacy prescriptions without a doctor’s face to face physical examination, have an effective date of 180 days after the law’s enactment:
Except as provided in paragraph (2), the amendments made by this Act shall take effect 180 days after the date [...]
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