Web Trafficking

Last October, during the height of the anthrax scare, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revisited a letter-writing campaign targeting Web sites that boldly ship illegal prescription drugs (like the recently sought-after antibiotic ciprofloxacin) into the United States. Lisbon-based Pharma Group, for instance, which sells a wide range of prescription drugs and encourages customers to "avoid costly and time-consuming doctor’s visits," was recently scolded by the FDA for illegally dispensing pharmaceuticals in the United States. But that Web site and others continue to operate freely, presenting a serious challenge for international law enforcement.

Of course, the online drug trade reaches beyond just offering Americans easy access to prescription drugs without a doctor’s prescription. According to the international policing agency, Interpol, by the beginning of 2000 more than 1,000 Web sites worldwide were selling illicit drugs on the Web, including cannabis, ecstasy, heroin, and cocaine. An herbal blend of the drug ecstasy, for example, is available at — come on, you didn’t actually think we’d give you that Web address, did you?

The Internet has also made life easier for drug traffickers in general, notes the 2001 report of the International Narcotics Control Board, a U.N.-mandated "independent, quasi-judicial control organ" charged with implementing the United Nations’ drug control treaties. Advertisements, testimonials, drug recipes, and the increasing ease of real-time communication are all part of what concerns the INCB most. The agency says drug rings use the Web and advanced communications technologies in two distinct ways: to improve "the efficiency of product delivery and distribution" through secure, instant communications and to "protect themselves and their illicit operations from investigation by drug law enforcement agencies."

The INCB has been warning governments about the increasing seriousness of technology’s role in the drug trade since 1996, says Herbert Okun, former U.S. ambassador to East Germany and the United Nations. He is currently the U.S. incb representative. Unfortunately, says Okun, the bottom line is that very little has been done by the international community to stop the sale of illicit drugs on the Web.

The most significant hindrances to serious drug enforcement initiatives on the Internet are, in Okun’s view, both legal and commercial. "Regulating any sales on the Internet is inherently difficult," he says. And even pharmaceutical companies that engage in legal trade are understandably reluctant to have increased regulation. Economists have estimated legal pharmaceutical sales to be worth approximately $300 billion a year, putting it just behind the global petroleum industry. And while figures vary, the illegal drug trade, on the other hand, is probably worth about half that, or $150 billion a year.