Pharmaceuticals

Transnational Internet-facilitated commerce in pharmaceuticals, legal or illicit, presents interesting issues and problems. Contributing to the difficulty in defining these issues is the quasi-legal status that some international Internet-based sales, such as ethical Canadian pharmacies, present for bargain-hunting consumers. Although a few online pharmacies are legitimate and require a doctor's prescription before they will supply and send the drug to the consumer, most do not. These may require filling out an online questionnaire that is supposedly examined by a “cyberdoctor;” the pharmacy may be based in a country where a prescription is not required for the drug in question (or, for that matter, for any drug). If these sites are shut down by government edict or by the Internet service provider, they can start up ...