Team 8 Investigates - Illegal narcotics sold online

(WTNH, Nov. 18, 2003 11:00 PM) _ It's the newest battle in the war
against drugs and perhaps the toughest challenge yet.

The online sale of potent painkillers without a doctor's prescription.

For abusers, getting the drugs is as easy as a click of the mouse.

For law enforcement, it's a difficult task chasing drug dealers through
cyber space.

Watch the story with Team 8 Investigator Alan Cohn

Just how easy is it to get these drugs illegally over the internet?

You're about to find out but this story comes with a warning.

If we were able to do it, so could your kid.

You want Vicodin, Percoset, even Oxycontin? Just search the web.
There are dozens of web sites offering to sell those powerful, and
addictive drugs, without a prescription.

One site even saying up front "we cannot verify your prescription,
therefore it is useless for us to ask for it." And that alarms the director
of the Connecticut Department of Drug Control.

"e view it as a very serious problem. It's accessible to anyone who has
had access to the internet that would include children," says John
Gadea.

Pharmacies like the one at Yale New Haven Hospital are so careful
about securing narcotics, they keep them locked up in a vault. So the
idea of being able to order narcotics over the internet is scary to those
who work here.

"The reasons these and other medications are so tightly controlled in
this country is because of the danger they represent to patients who
are unaware of the effects of these medications. it's a huge risk if
these medications get into the wrong hands," says Lisa Stump, Yale
New Haven Hospital.

And how do you know what you're getting? We wanted to find out. So
we went to "Interpharm," an on-line pharmacy out of Thailand, offering
a wide variety of pain killers.

We ordered beprenorphine which the company claims is similar to the
narcotic Vicodin for a hundred bucks. A week later, we received this
non discript blue envelope from Thailand inside a birthday card.

"You have a good reason to dance all night, it says."

And taped to the card, a plastic bag of 50 tablets with only vague
instructions about dosage.

"This is clearly not packaged in any way that helps you know what
you've purchased and understand how you take this," says Stump.

We asked Yale New Haven Hospital pharmacist Lisa Stump to test the
tablets.

"It showed a direct match."

"the medication you purchased is a very potent pain medication that
also has a side effects of causing euphoria or hallucinations."

So yes, we got a potent drug but despite the company's claim Stump
says it's not similar to Vicodin. And that, experts say can cause huge
problems.

"You may be allergic to this product not really knowing what's in the
product," says Gadea.

Ordering drugs over the internet is not only dangerous, it's illegal but
very tough to stop.

"Is this a difficult challenge for law enforcement?"

"Well it's extremely difficult," says Gadea.

After all, the drugs are mailed in plain packages by internet company's
hard to locate.

Computers servers may be in one country, company owners in another.
But the drugs they're peddling are very real and very dangerous.

"Narcotics can cause your breathing rate to slow down in some cases
to the point of death so an overdose of that substance can be fatal,"
says Stump.

We contacted Interpharm and asked if they had any concerns about
youngsters buying drugs from them.

In an e-mailed response they said they "will consider asking the age" of
those purchasing drugs but "so far" it "considers the payment process
difficult enough to keep out non adults.