Purchasing Safe Drugs Online Without Prescription Like ‘Finding Needle in Haystack,' Says Libby Baney

An August 9 segment on Radio Health Journal addressed the proliferation of online "pharmacies" and the dangers consumers face when purchasing drugs from them. According to the piece, 97 percent of these pharmacies are "rogue sites operating illegally.” Libby Baney, Faegre Baker Daniels counsel, senior director for FaegreBD Consulting, and founder and executive director of the Alliance for Safe Online  Pharmacies (ASOP), said that many sites appear legitimate enough to fool even savvy consumers.

"One in six Americans have purchased medicine online without a prescription, so people are really putting themselves at risk when buying online, trying to find basically a needle in a haystack, that 3 percent [of online pharmacies] that's legal," Baney said. "That's going to be awfully hard to do, because there are sophisticated websites that are designed to dupe patients into buying medicines that are counterfeit or substandard."