The high cost of legitimate drugs is forcing a record number of people to gamble with their lives by seeking out cheaper black market medications online.
A leading patients’ body made the claim after a joint Garda, Revenue, and Interpol operation made one of the biggest counterfeit drugs seizures in Irish history.
Between Jun 18 and 25, a Europe-wide crackdown on the sale of black market medications found more than 192,000 types of illegal drugs in Irish border searches.
The potentially dangerous medications — which range from tranquillisers and steroids to erectile dysfunction and weight-loss tablets — were seized last week and are estimated to be worth €612,000.
While the black market drugs — which often help to fund crime gangs — can be dangerous as they regularly do not have the correct dosage levels or are labelled as something they are not, officials said this has not put people off from risking their health to save money.
And, coming on the back of Tuesday’s warning from the Economic and Social Research Institute that this country’s drug prices are far higher than other nations, the Irish Patients’ Association said prices — not ignorance — are forcing people to buy illegally online.
“This is driven by a number of factors, including economic. People think they can go online and get medications cheaper,” IPA chairman Stephen McMahon — who is also patient advocate on a Council of Europe group tasked with addressing the problem — explained.
“It’s getting to the stage where 1kg of counterfeit medicine is more valuable than 1kg of cocaine, because more people are going online to dodgy websites and avoiding their GP,” he said.
Source: Fiachra Ó Cionnaith, Irish Examiner, 28/06/12
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