Posted on Friday, 10th October 2008 by dcooley
I dicussed this internet pharmacy quote yesterday, but I wanted to emphasize it today in a seperate article. Dianne Feinstein, the Ryan Haight Bill sponsor in the Senate, was quoted in the Wall Street Journal yesterday regarding why the Ryan Haight Act was needed:
Regulators say the new law is intended in part to strengthen the federal government’s ability to enforce existing statutes and make clear how they apply to the Internet. “This is really making explicit what has been implicit,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat and the bill’s lead sponsor in the Senate. “We’ve tried to close this loophole by essentially addressing this problem of controlled substances being sold without any medical oversight or prescription.
In other words, here you have the Bill’s sponsor expressly admitting that prior to the Ryan Haight Act, the law was incredibly unclear with regards to whether internet pharmacy online consultations (i.e. consultations without a physical face-to-face examination) were illegal. How a prosecutor can say with a stragiht face that those indicted pre-Ryan Haight Act knew beyond a reasonable doubt that what they were doing was illegal is amazing, when the very lawmakers responsible for regulating online pharmacy prescriptions find that the law, at best, only “implicitly” makes online consultations illegal.
I plan to dig some more into the legislative history to find more interesting and relevant quotes.
My previous discussions of the Ryan Haight Act:
- More on Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Act
- Ryan Haight Act: Overlooking Current Prosecutions
- Detailed Criminal Defense Analysis of Ryan Haight Act
- Pharmacy Association Erroneously Favors the Ryan Haight Act
- House Passes Ryan Haight Act
- House Energy Committee Passes Ryan Haight Act
- Internet Pharmacy Prosecution Criminal Defense Legal Issues: Part 2
- Internet Pharmacy Prosecution Criminal Defense Legal Issues: Part 1
The content on this post does not constitute legal advice and is for informational purposes only. You should not act upon the information presented on this website without seeking the advice of legal counsel. Should you wish to speak to an experienced criminal defense attorney knowledgeable in internet pharmacy, prescription, and drug law, please feel free to contact me directly.
Tags: Controlled Substances, Criminal Appeals, Criminal Defense, Internet Pharmacy Law, Ryan Haight Act
Posted in Court Cases, DEA, Direct "Script", Doctors, Online Consultations, Pharmacies, Ryan Haight Act, Website Owners | Comments (7)
October 14th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
[...] Legislative History of the Ryan Haight Act: An argument that the legislative history of the Ryan Haight Bill benefits pre-Ryan Haight internet pharmacy criminal defendants. [...]
October 16th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
[...] Legislative History of the Ryan Haight Act [...]
October 29th, 2008 at 10:57 am
[...] It still amazes me how individuals plea so quickly (Juan Ibanez was indicted in December 2007) when faced with a prosecutor’s pre Ryan Haight Act legal theories which, in my opinion, are fundamentally flawed, constitutionally impermissible, and expressly inconsistent with congressional intent. [...]
November 4th, 2008 at 12:22 am
[...] Pre Ryan Haight Act Criminal Defense Legislative History Evidence Part 1: Evidence supporting my argument that the very fact Congress sought to pass the Ryan Haight Act, which attempts to outlaw online consultations without a face to face physical examination, implies that the practice was previously legal. [...]
March 12th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
[...] Legislative History Evidence for Pre-Ryan Haight Act Criminal Defendants Part 1 [...]
April 10th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
[...] Sen. Dianne Feinstein (WSJ - 10/9/2008): “This is really making explicit what has been implicit. We’ve tried to [...]
April 10th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
[...] license was revoked due to, at the very least, a very unclear criminal law (see my article on the Ryan Haight Act). More importantly, even if the law was expressly clear, Holtel even called to confirm the [...]