Prescription drugs purchased through the internet: Who are the end users?

Abstract

Although prescription drugs are readily available on the Internet, little is known about the prevalence of Internet use for the purchase of medications without a legitimate prescription, and the characteristics of those that obtain non-prescribed drugs through online sources. The scientific literature on this topic is limited to anecdotal reports or studies plagued by small sample sizes. Within this context, the focus of this paper is an examination of five national data sets from the U.S. with the purpose of estimating: (1) how common obtaining prescription medications from the Internet actually is, (2) who are the typical populations of "end users" of these non-prescribed medications, and (3) which drugs are being purchased without a prescription. Three of the data sets are drawn from the RADARS ® (Researched Abuse Diversion and Addiction-Related Surveillance) System, a comprehensive series of studies designed to collect timely and geographically specific data on the abuse and diversion of a number of prescription stimulants and opioid analgesics. The remaining data sets include the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) and the Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey. Our analysis yielded uniformly low rates of prescription drug acquisition from online sources across all five data systems we examined. The consistency of this finding across very diverse populations suggests that the Internet is a relatively minor source for illicit purchases of prescription medications by the individual end-users of these drugs.

Sources of Pharmaceutical Opioids for Non-Medical Use among Young Adults

“…In addition, our findings suggest that the Internet did not play an important role in providing access to pharmaceutical opioids for illicit use, which is consistent with other empirical findings (McCabe & Boyd 2005; SAMHSA 2006; Inciardi et al 2010) but contradictory to some assumptions that had appeared in the scientific and media sources (Wax 2002). This may be related to the fact that our participants were not opioid dependent.…”

‘Codeine is my companion’: misuse and dependence on codeine containing medicines in Ireland

“…Two way displacements between prescribed codeine for physical pain management and over the counter sourcing were observed and similar to that illustrated in Cooper's study in the United Kingdom (2013a). Similar to extant research (Inciardi et al 2009(Inciardi et al , 2010Wilsey et al 2010;Hamer et al 2013) online sourcing of codeine rarely occurred in preference for pharmacies, and prescribers.…”

Key Data Gaps Regarding the Public Health Issues Associated with Opioid Analgesics

“…8 However, the DEA and other agencies have reported substantial volumes of opioid dosage units being diverted via the internet during 2009, primarily schedule III and schedule IV medications. 49 Variations over time in availability and amount diverted via these sources could also be used to indicate whether diversion mechanisms are responding as anticipated to supply-focused interventions.…”