Pharmacist Nailed for Online Drug Sales

June 17, 2004 -- It's been more than three years since Francine Haight found her son's lifeless body in bed as she attempted to awaken him. She says she'll never forget the horrific discovery and she doesn't want anyone else to forget it either.

"I tried to resuscitate him," Haight said, crying. But it was too late."

Doctors found that Ryan Haight, an honor student who was barely 18, had died of an overdose of powerful prescription painkillers, a verdict that shocked his mother.

"I was just, 'Oh my God — hydrocodone, morphine, morphine. How did he get morphine?' " she recalled.

It turned out that some of the drugs that eventually killed the La Mesa, Calif., teen back in February 2001 came from nationpharmacy.com, a Norman, Okla.-based Internet drug store owned by pharmacist Clayton Fuchs, who also ran other similar Web sites.

Now Haight is asking a group of Washington politicians to get to know Ryan and his story. She is telling a Senate subcommittee about her loss during a hearing on the safety of pharmaceuticals purchased over the Internet.

Haight and her attorney, Todd Macaluso, say they believe the government can prevent such a tragedy from happening again.

Congress can pass a law that essentially provides that Internet pharmacies must follow certain strict guidelines," Macaluso said. "There must be a full disclosure of the pharmacy, pharmacist and the physicians involved, a full disclosure of the name of the company through which they're doing business and a mandatory requirement that any prescriptions issued over the Internet are issued with a valid prescription where there is a valid physician-patient relationship," he said.

Haight says the government needs to get involved in preventing easy access to drugs over the Internet because parents can only do so much. She says her family did everything in its power to control Ryan's Internet use.

Haight says she intentionally made sure the computer wasn't in her son's bedroom, so that she could monitor his online activities. Later she discovered that he had been sneaking onto the computer in the den late at night and ordering drugs, then experimenting with various combinations to get high.Fuchs, who was convicted by a federal jury on six felony offenses back in October 2003, said he was unaware that Ryan had no real prescriptions for the drugs he ordered.

"I felt that the prescriptions were valid, so I filled them," said 33-year-old Fuchs.

The pharmacist's offenses included conspiracy to dispense a controlled substance, operating a continuing criminal enterprise and money laundering.

Big Business

Prosecutors say that between January 2000 and March 2001, Fuchs grossed $5.6 million by selling controlled drugs via the Internet. He's not alone. On Dec. 4, federal prosecutors in Alexandria, Va., unsealed an indictment, charging 10 people and three companies with illegally selling controlled substances and other prescription drugs over the Internet to consumers through various Web sites.

Meanwhile, hundreds of other drug stores continue to operate on the Internet, in some cases filling prescriptions even though doctors who prescribe them never see the patient.

Selling painkillers and other abused and addictive prescription drugs online, with patients never meeting a doctor face to face, is illegal. But some Internet pharmacies operate in a legal gray area, filling patient requests for a limited range of drugs for dieting, baldness or sexual dysfunction.

Dr. James Thompson, head of the Federation of State Medical Boards, which licenses and regulates doctors, calls it a bad practice.

'Unethical Practice'

"Easy, private? Yes. Safe? No." Thompson said. "It's bad medicine, it's unethical practice of medicine."

For one thing, without a face-to-face exam, doctors may miss an underlying condition. Investigators say many sites are interested only in a patient's credit card.

Thompson said he has heard of some doctors who have earned more than $1 million a year writing Internet prescriptions.

Haight says that since Ryan's death she can't stop worrying the lack of awareness.

"No one is aware how easy it is to buy drugs on the Internet with just a click here and a click there," Haight said. "It's as easy as going to a grocery store and buying candy."

Checking Out Online Pharmacies:

The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy has a program to verify online pharmacies. It is called Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites. Consumers should look for their seal of approval on Web sites selling drugs. http://www.nabp.net/vipps/intro.asp

For more on Ryan Haight, go to http://www.ryanscause.org/index.htm