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According to the World Health Organisation, the trade in illegal and counterfeit drugs is worth £18billion a year - though some investigators believe the figure is much higher - and it may be responsible for as many as half a million deaths worldwide.
And if you are foolish enough to buy online, the same organisation estimates your chances of being sold fake medication at higher than 50-50.
In 2005, there were just 500,000 seizures for the whole of Europe.In China alone, up to 300,000 people a year are thought to die because of substandard and fake medication. It is also believed that a fifth of the one million malaria deaths every year could be avoided if patients had access to genuine pharmaceuticals - rather than fakes.
vwwvv Member # 18359
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'It is such a lucrative business that very organised criminals are involved whose activities go largely unchecked. (All of which helps explain the spam email advertisements for 'Viagra' with which most computers are bombarded every day.)
'Many of these pills are made in dirty backstreet laboratories in places like China or Afghanistan,' said David Pruce, director of policy at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain.
'Among those reported recently are a 58-year-old Canadian who died after taking fake sleeping pills laced with strontium, arsenic, aluminium and uranium; a man from Chicago who almost died after taking a fake Xanax tablet for anxiety which contained four times the normal amount of active ingredients; and an American woman who died after taking counterfeit medication laced with aluminium.
Last year, a team led by Mr Thompson bought 36 batches of drugs online and found that almost two-thirds were counterfeit or of dangerously poor quality. They included the asthma drug Seretide, the high blood pressure pills Micardis and Coversyl, the schizophrenia medication Zyprexa, and the Alzheimer's treatment Aricept.
There were also Viagra pills for erectile dysfunction, the anti-obesity drug Reductil, the anti-ulcer medication Zoton and many others.
One delivery, for 16 Plavix heart pills (which were real), came wrapped in a copy of the Mumbai Daily News. There were no patient instructions, but there were two free Viagra pills (which turned out to be fake) and a letter thanking the buyer for their custom.
'If it wasn't so terrifying, it would be almost funny,' said Mr Thompson. 'Plavix is for people who have recently had heart attacks, strokes or heart surgery. To take a Viagra pill would probably kill them.''Any site that offers prescription drugs without a prescription is dangerous,' said Mr Thompson.
'And so are the drugs that they sell. If you buy them, you're playing Russian roulette. The last pill may not have killed you, but maybe the next one will.'Investigators report finding pills made from rat poison, cement, floor polish, chalk, rice flour, lead paint and concentrations of real active ingredients that are so low or so high as to be dangerous.
vwwvv Member # 18359
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Ayisha Member # 4713
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bump, good and relevant article.
Ayisha Member # 4713
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Monkey Member # 17287
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+ popping "the little blue pill" is actually quite dangerous, even if you're getting the real thing. If you have the teensiest little heart problem (as people of a certain age often do without even knowing at first, for years) you could be in big trouble in upping the pressure.
Don't think I'd like to spend my days promoting something that could potentially kill people, but heyho.
Ayisha Member # 4713
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Well here in Egypt we know full well about those that don't give a toss about who they kill to earn a bit of extra dosh, Monkey. Daft thing is you can bet your life most of what it's advertising you can already buy OTC here anyway, plus no one in Egypt would be able to 'buy drugs online' and have them delivered anyway, they even opened my cross stitch kits to check them, I'm damn sure they wont be allowing drugs in, PLUS did you know when you come here and have any pills etc in your case that are NOT prescription with the pharmacy label they can confiscate on arrival.
Dzosser Member # 9572
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Don't those pharma dumbos get it that nobody's gonna buy their stuff ? Why don't they promote some fvcking ball bearings ffs ?
Monkey Member # 17287
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Sashyra8 Member # 14488
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Seems major spammer disant has now enlisted a spam buddy,Drolux.
Shanta Gdeeda Member # 9889
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I've given up - I spent nearly 3 hours last night deleting spam but there's 3 pages more again now.
If they hit the other area (living) I'm outta here.