Headline Sep26,2012 / ''Student Liam!''

''STUDENT LIAM!''

Photo by Oussama Houssaini / Morocco

One Mother who understands the devastating consequences of drugs being peddled home online is Sue Brackell. In June, 2003, her son threw himself under a train after being addicted to prescription drugs bought online and developing serious mental health problems. Powerful antidepressants, the anti psychotic olanzapine, and what he thought were codeine tablets but were actually counterfeits cut with morphine, all contributed to his condition.
''I am still very angry,'' she says. ''It's not only Liam -these people have a complete disregard for anything. As long as their customers have a credit card, that's all they care about.''

By the time of his death, Liam had tried 23 different types of prescriptions from Internet sites and businesses from as far afield as China, Hong Kong, South America Vanuatu in the Pacific.In reality, most websites claiming to be based in Western countries actually operate from developing countries where regulations are loose an even non existent. The Drugs are Fake, The locations are Fake and the Dealers are Fake.

Now, obviously, The Drug Firms may worry about their Brands and Profit Margins, but does the entire planet have really anything to fear from unscrupulous counterfeiters?? According to Professor Tony Moffat, the head of the Centre for Pharmaceutical Analysis at the University of London School of Pharmacy, the answer is ''absolutely''. Professor Moffat does extensive research on the problem of counterfeit drugs. In recent tests for a drug wholesaler, his team discovered that of 100 batches of Plavix, a blood thinner used after a heart attack, two of the consignments were fake.

The absence of active pharmaceutical ingredients in potentially life saving drugs is only half the problem, the other is what the counterfeiters replace them with.One ingredient that particularly worries Moffat is diethylene glycol, a toxic chemical used in antifreeze It is used in fake cough syrup, which he says has caused ''thousands of deaths''. The same chemical was found in counterfeit Sensodyne toothpaste at markets and car boot sales in Derbyshire.

The efficacy of the counterfeits may be questionable, but Nasim Ahmed stresses that all the drugs that were intercepted were found to contain 60 to 70 percent of the medicine's active ingredients. The Fakers are not stupid, he says. By ensuring that their pills work, at least a bit, they are more likely to avoid detection and to generate repeat orders. While the bulk of such counterfeits were once produced in India, China is now causing the MHRA its biggest headaches. ''In all cases that we have come across in the UK,'' says Nasim Ahmed, ''we strongly believe were sourced in China!''

Many thanks to !WOW! for its splendid work in service of Mankind.

Good ight and God bless!