Interesting Article

[BummerT]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50219-2003Oct (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50219-2003Oct19.html) 19.html

[iggy]

Why is that article interesting? smileys/smiley12.gif

[BummerT]

f**king read it.


"In June 2002, federal prosecutors in Arizona moved to seize several million dollars in assets from the Web sites, owners, doctors and pharmacies."


Sounds scary to me.

[tehSEOmaster]

i think its just the websites that were involved in selling, i doubt they were affiliate websites... but certainly makes you think

[MedsDirect]

In each of the artices, save 1, the pharmacists owned the websites, and in some cases the doctor networks as well.


The one exception resulted in no stated fines or court proceedings, the owners shut the site down after receiving a letter from the DEA and that was the end of it.


My assesment would then still be that Affiliates are in a fairly safe position.


Just my take on it.

[BummerT]

The much anticipated Fuchs vs. DEA:


12:52 AM CDT on Friday, October 24, 2003


By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News


Pharmacist Clayton H. Fuchs, who planned on a new life after his marriage two months ago, now faces a sentence of up to life in prison after a federal jury convicted him Thursday night on six counts of illegally selling potent prescription drugs over the Internet.


Mr. Fuchs' family - including his stepfather, Eugene Gonzalez, whom the jury also convicted on one of the counts - vowed to spend themselves into bankruptcy to get the guilty verdicts overturned in a higher court.


"We're going to fight until we don't have any money left. We feel like we were lambs led to slaughter, that we've been railroaded," said Mr. Gonzalez of Garland, who partnered with Mr. Fuchs in operating drug sale Web sites such as friendlypharmacy.com, texashealthweb.com and nationpharmacy.com.


Mr. Gonzalez faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to federal sentencing guidelines.


DeSoto pharmacist Waldrick Lemons faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.


U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis did not immediately schedule a date for a sentencing hearing for the men. The judge ordered Mr. Fuchs into federal custody pending that hearing but allowed Mr. Gonzalez and Mr. Lemons to remain free.


Mr. Fuchs grabbed his sobbing wife, Stacey, and hugged her before U.S. Marshal Service deputies led him away.


Prosecutors argued during the trial, which began Oct. 8, that Mr. Fuchs led a ring of doctors and pharmacists who prescribed and shipped the narcotic hydrocodone and other potent drugs to individuals without meeting them face to face, scanning their medical records or examining them between Jan. 1, 2000, and March 31, 2001. Hydrocodone is used in painkillers such brand-name products Lortab and Vicodin.


The men divided profits Mr. Fuchs deposited into bank accounts, prosecutors said.


Three other men indicted by a federal grand jury - physicians Stephen Thompson of Garland, Robert Ogle of Rockwall and Kenneth Speak of Dallas - pleaded guilty earlier this year to one count of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and one count of money laundering. Their sentencing hearing is scheduled Dec. 10.


"We're pleased with the verdict of the jury. The evidence supported the verdict," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Guess, who co-prosecuted the case.


He said the U.S. attorney's office would release a statement Friday.


John H. Read II, Mr. Fuchs' attorney, promised to appeal.


Mr. Read said that Mr. Fuchs is not guilty of the crimes of which he is accused because there are no applicable laws that exact how pharmacists should sell drugs over the Internet.


"He could have handled his business a little better, but when he started, there was no law on this practice," said Mr. Read, who warned that the verdict would chill the entrepreneurial spirit of online businesspeople. "We have some very appeal-worthy issues here."


Penny Gonzalez, Mr. Fuchs' mother and Mr. Gonzalez's wife, said prosecutors lied about her son in saying that he's a greedy criminal who jeopardized the lives of dozens of people in order to make easy money.


He generously used the money he made to purchase automobiles and houses for her and other family members, Ms. Gonzalez said.


But more important, Mr. Gonzalez contends, is the "injustice" of the federal government prosecuting "poor, innocent country folk who got fooled" when dozens of Internet-based prescription drug sellers today operate freely, without penalty or prosecution.


"Check your e-mail and there will be eight different online pharmacies doing it wrong," he said. "We were just trying to be honest, trying to do it right."

[stevie]

Governement f**ks Fuchs


Great for headlines

[stevie]

btw this is WHY . . . >>> he was fuchsed


NATIONPHARMACY.COM

Investigators were stunned when they visited the tiny storefront offices of the Internet-based pharmacy in Norman, Okla., in December 2000. Barely open two months, it was filling hundreds of prescriptions daily for its nationpharmacy.com Web site, the Internet arm of a brick-and-mortar drugstore called Main Street Pharmacy.</NITF>


<NITF>"There were cases of hydrocodone from ceiling to floor in a room that was maybe 8 by 8," said Cindy Hamilton of the Oklahoma State Board of Pharmacy. "You couldn't maneuver."</NITF>


<NITF>In March 2001, the state agency revoked the pharmacy's license. The owner, pharmacist Clayton Fuchs, 32, was indicted in Texas on related charges, along with three doctors, two pharmacists and a business partner. The doctors have pleaded guilty. Fuchs is awaiting trial and has appealed the pharmacy board's ruling. According to pharmacy board records, Main Street sold about 1.5 million doses of hydrocodone in four months. Profits from Fuchs's Internet operations were used to purchase a $675,000 house, $505,851 in other real estate, a $92,650 Mercedes, a 2001 BMW and a 1.735-carat diamond ring, the federal indictment states.</NITF>


<NITF>Through his lawyer, Fuchs declined to be interviewed.</NITF>


<NITF>"That business was like a Home Shopping Network for hydrocodone," said John Duncan, chief agent of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. "All they were doing there was pushing dope."</NITF>

[MedsDirect]

btw this is WHY . . . &gt;&gt;&gt; he was fuchsed





I believe so:


Hydrocodone is bad stuff. Its used as cash on the black market for drugs. If a user goes to a coke dealer and has no money for a fix, hydrocodone or vicodin are like cash, valued between $3-$5 dollars per pill.


The "codone" and "codin" in the drug names stands for codine. The users just cut the codine out with a razor and pile it up.


In the old days, drug addicts and drug dealers had to "doctor shop" until they found a few doctors that would give them overlapping prescriptions for hydrocodone and vicodin. They would get a new prescription each week from a different doc, and fund purchases for more hard core narcotics, or if in a bind, just take the codine to get through withdrawals from whatever else they were on. Now all they need is the internet and a money order. It's quite frightening.


Think of it this way, any gang shooting could be potentially linked to a gun bought with drug money, funded by narcotics bought on the internet, or diverted from local doctors.


Its not just an internet problem, the DEA has a huge force dedicated to drug diversion at physical doctors offices, they just finally got around to the internet as well.